


Miraculous

by Go_get_Jakes_gun



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 'Full disclosure' doesn't actually mean dull disclosure, Barty hates Sirius, Bisexual Evan, But it's OK cuz Snape hates him too, F/F, F/M, Fucking Bad Language, I seriously gave these Miraculouses the worst names possible, I'm so sorry, M/M, Marauders' Era, Might change to E, Miraculous AU, Modern AU, Reg feels pressure, Reg likes someone he shouldn't, Regulus hates himself for loving Bleu, Regulus is Chat Noir, Regulus is clumsy, Remus has a crush, Remus is Ladybug, Remus is clumsy, Sirius and Regulus live together, Sirius hates Barty, Sirius hates Snape too, Sirius never ran away, Sirius vs Barty rivalry, Tonks is a decade and a half older than in canon, Voldemort goes by Thomas Gaunt, bad names, gay Regulus, you don't even understand
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-05-24 16:29:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 22,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14958102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Go_get_Jakes_gun/pseuds/Go_get_Jakes_gun
Summary: They were supposed to be in love- that was the plan. All Ladybugs and Chat Noirs had had a romantic history- that fact went back as far as… well as far as there had ever BEEN a Ladybug and a Chat Noir. And yet- Regulus sighed- and yet he hadneverbeen attracted to Ladybug. Grown close to the man- sure, butattractedto him!? Regulus hated himself. Hated himself and his treacherous body … blamed himself for the fact that Maître Bleu always got away…





	1. Chapter 1

Regulus sipped on his raspberry and banana smoothie, typing frantically on his laptop. _Done!_ Message sent! Professor Flitwick couldn’t _possibly_ complain about this being late- it was a day early!

 

His eye drifted to his chatphone- as he called it. Nothing. It had him set on edge.

 

“Hey! Don’t you, like, have any cheese or something?” he chuckled. Plagg was always hungry.

 

“Check the fridge- I’m sure Sirius bought some!”

 

“There’s none left!”

 

“Then you must have eaten it all,” Regulus rolled his eyes, getting up and stretching out his arms and legs. “Come on, I’ll go to the market and buy you some.”

 

“Can we get Camembert- oh I _love_ Camembert!”

 

“Yes, of course we can get Camembert.”

 

“Oh boy!”

 

Regulus sometimes wondered if Ladybug ever had to put up with this from his Kwami.

 

.

 

Regulus had been right. Of course he had. When had he ever been wrong?

 

The peace had been too much to ask for. He gazed around at the burning blue flames littering the city. He had to find whomever had been akumatized, and then find the bastard he knew had spread the chaos.

 

Maître Bleu.

 

Where the hell was Ladybug? Oh, fuck him. He was going after Bleu- he was 100% sure Ladybug could handle whatever sad sap had been akumatized this time.

 

He jumped from rooftop to rooftop searching until at last, he saw a blue blur race past him. Bingo.

 

He chased Bleu all the way into a dark alley.

 

“Give up!” he shouted. “There’s nowhere for you to run!”

 

“Think again,” he heard Bleu’s infuriatingly cocky voice.

 

Regulus felt himself shoved down to the ground hard, and looked up to see Jaws on top of him. What the hell- it had been five fucking months since the creep had last shown his face in London!

 

“Grab his Miraculous,” Bleu smirked up at Jaws, “Time to see what’s been hiding behind that pretty little mask of his!”

 

He panicked feeling Jaws feel around for his Miraculous. First yanking his ears, then his bell before finally Bleu grit out, “Oh for gods’ sakes, it’s in his ring.”

 

Jaws smirked victoriously, hand grabbing Regulus’s when suddenly the weight was gone. Regulus rolled over onto his back, breathing out a sigh of relief as his suspicions were confirmed. _Ladybug_!

 

Ladybug offered him a hand which he gladly accepted. But by the time he got back to his feet, both villains were gone.

 

“We have to find the Akuma,” Ladybug began.

 

“No. We need to find them.”

 

“If there’s anything we should know about Bleu, it’s that he’ll chase after the Akuma to protect whoever it is.”

 

Regulus groaned. Ladybug had a point. Still, he had an uneasy feeling about him.

 

All right.

 

.

 

In the end, they’d managed to find the akumatized person and restore normality to London again. They’d zipped off back to their residences, and transformed, but something was bothering Regulus.

 

If they’d seen Jaws… why hadn’t they seen Stick?

.

 

Severus Tobias Snape frowned. Several of his Miraculouses had gone missing. Shit! This was bad, this was bad! Transforming himself, he contacted Ladybug and Chat Noir to tell them to come over quickly.

 

No. Severus did _not_ know their identities, as his mother had handed the two their Miraculouses three years ago before… before she had died in a ‘car crash’ with his father being the sole survivor… that had been a year ago. Still, she had trained him well to be a Miraculous Holder, and he knew the importance of secrecy when it came to Miraculouses… especially _these_ two Miraculouses.

 

Chat Noir came zooming in through the window, followed seconds later by Ladybug.

 

“Gentleman,” Severus began. “I have called the two of you in here to discuss an emergency of the highest degree… several of the Miraculouses have gone missing…”

 

“ _What_!?” Exclaimed Ladybug.

 

“I knew something was off!” Chat Noir exclaimed. “I knew there had to be a reason why Jaws was alone- _Stick_ took it!”

 

“Now now, gentlemen, it matters not who took it, merely that you retrieve them when they’re in use… as much as I hate to admit it, the two of you alone are not strong enough to fight against all of these Miraculouses at once… I think it prudent that you two take these,” he handed them four Miraculouses: a stag, dog, lion and chameleon. “Decide who to give them to- decide _wisely_ , for it is up to you two to train them lest an attack ever befalls London.”

 

“Of course, Maître,” Chat Noir nodded, before turning to Ladybug. “Shall we go?”

 

“We shall.”

 

The two zipped off on to the roof of the Leaky Cauldron, a seedy bar they’d get privacy at.

 

“Well, what do you think we should do?” Chat Noir asked. “Should we split them up or choose who to give them to together?”

 

“I think we ought to split them up,” Ladybug said, glancing at the four objects. “You take the Dog and Stag, I’ll take the Lion and Chameleon.”

 

“Alright. Don’t rush though, take all the time you need. This needs to be fast, but we also don’t want to make a mistake in who we give them to.”

 

“Agreed.”


	2. Chapter 2

Regulus had been staring at the Dog and Stag Miraculous for over an hour by the time Sirius got home.

 

“Hey, mini-munch! Sorry I’m home late- traffic was blocked because of this wicked fight!” Sirius grinned. “Dude, you should’ve seen it- it was so _cool!_ I hope you didn’t hole yourself in here all day.”

 

“Of course not, Sirius. I went out for lunch,” he lied.

 

“That’s all?” a normal sibling would have asked- but to Sirius’s credit, Regulus had been a loner since he was young. Moments like this weren’t exactly rare.

 

Which is why Sirius simply nodded and plopped down on the couch, turning the tv on.

 

“Hey- what do you want for dinner?” Sirius asked, picking up his phone.

 

“Uh- I, I’m not really hungry,” Regulus said, tapping his foot on the floor. Shit, he always did that when he lied- he hoped Sirius didn’t notice. But what could he do? Sure, he didn’t want to lie, and he’d _love_ to eat with his brother- but he needed to at least do some scouting. That way he could at least monitor the person before he made his decision. He was sure he’d find a quick bite to eat whilst he was out- maybe a burger or something. He’d have to carry some money with him. “Hey, Siri, I’m gonna go out on a run, OK? I’ll be back soon!”

 

“O-,” the door slammed, Sirius frowned. “-kay… OK, Regulus.”

 

.

 

Remus groaned, laying down on his bed and spreading out into a star-fish position.

 

Who was he going to give these to- he’d _never_ had a responsibility this big! What if… he gulped, what if he chose _wrong_. What if they had another ‘Death Eaters’ on their hands?

 

He wondered if Chat Noir was having the same problem he did- of course not. The boy _exuded_ confidence, there’s no way that he’d _ever_ hesitate, not even on this.

 

The obvious choice would be to give them to his friends- but a) he had two miraculouses and three friends, and b) like it or not, he didn’t exactly trust them with something this big. What could he say- he’d known them far too long, he supposed...

 

Of course there _was_ Lily, James’s girlfriend, he supposed. They may not be best-friends, but they got along pretty well, and she was a constant in their group now that she and James had made it official. She was far more mature and responsible that Sirius, James and Peter… _combined!_

 

He glanced at the Lion Miraculous and thumbed it fondly. He knew _just_ which one to give to Lily.

 

.

 

Regulus groaned, three hours. _Three hours_ , he'd been out roaming the city. He’d stopped for a burger two hours ago. Nothing. He hadn’t seen a damned single person whom he’d entrust with either Miraculous he currently held in his hand. He'd even tried to make it easy at one point by feigning fainting… nothing. Not a single person paid him any notice.

 

He was sore and tired and, frankly, a little cold. Plagg had given out a half hour ago, so he was currently walking back home.

 

He knocked on the door, since he’d forgotten to take his key, and when it opened he frowned in confusion. In addition to Sirius, Potter, Lily and Pettigrew were sitting in the lounge. They all looked worried. He felt a presence behind him and turned- _Lupin_. He’d wondered where the boy had scampered off to.

 

Sirius stormed at him in a rage. “Where the hell were you!?” He exploded. “I waited an hour before I circled the block three times- then I had to call Remus, James and Peter! What the hell dude? We were about to call the _police_!”

 

“I-I’m sorry, Siri,” he said, feeling his lip wobble slightly, the child within him cowering at the thought of angering his older brother.

 

Sirius sighed. “Look. Just- did you at least have dinner?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Where were you?”

 

“I was just- uh, I was out and I ran into a friend.”

 

“You weren’t answering your phone!”

 

“It’s dead,” that much wasn’t a lie.

 

“And you didn’t think to call?”

 

“I didn’t think you’d care,” ouch. Low blow.

 

Sirius looked slightly affronted for a moment before collapsing in a sigh. “I hope it wasn’t one of your… _friends_.”

 

“No, Sirius, it most certainly was not,” Regulus turned to look at the others and saw that Lupin had now moved between Lily and Pettigrew. “Thank you for your time- I am sorry that my impromptu disappearance caused such a commotion,” he turned back to Sirius, “Siri, I’m sorry, but I have an econ test tomorrow on everything we’ve done this term- is it possible for me to please go upstairs?” he asked, shyly.

 

Sirius sighed and nodded, allowing his younger brother a moment to run up the stairs, before turning to his friends. “Alright- guys, we’re going out to the Three Broomsticks. Come on, before Rosy decides there’s no one there and closes up shop early.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters will get longer- I ~~(solemnly)~~ swear ~~(that I am up to no good!)~~


	3. Chapter 3

Lily groaned when she woke up the next morning. She had a massive hangover… and she hadn’t gone home with James… figured. He never spent the night if one of them was hammered.

 

What had she even _drank_ to get herself like this!? Two… three beers?

 

She got up off of her bed and stretched. Eugh, she needed to start getting ready. What was the time? She glanced around her room- fuck, while she was drunk the previous night she must have forgotten to put her phone on charge. She reached blindly around in her purse, simultaneously clutching her head as she tried to feel for the phone she knew was most likely dead.

 

She frowned… what was… what was _that_? She pulled out a box. It looked like a jewellery box… definitely from somewhere fancier than she could afford in her current economic state as a student and part-time waitress.

 

Maybe if she opened it, she could see if there was something in there to identify it’s true owner with. She opened the box and gasped. It shone- _literally_ shone! It was one of those- ooh! What was the word, what was the _word!?_ Those-those choker-necklace thingummies- with the two part. The whatchamacallit! _AArrgghhh! She hated that she always forgot it’s name!_ It had a bronze lion’s head carved as a pendant at the end of it.

 

No, no, she thought, sadly. I _must give it back… it’s not mine….”_

__

And that was when a small, throaty voice said, “Hello.”

 

Lily turned, and when she saw the source of the voice, she let out an ear-shattering scream. It was a small lion. A small flying, _talking_ lion!

 

“Don’t freak out!” it said, soothingly. “Hi, I’m Roarr, your kwami.”

 

Despite her panic, Lily still managed to breathe out, “My-wha- _kwami_!?”

 

“Have you ever heard of Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

 

Of course she had, _everyone had_. Still, she felt herself nod.

 

“So you know about Miraculouses?”

 

“Err,” she’d heard them mentioned on television during Ladybug and Chat Noir’s interviews at times.

 

“Well, basically, it’s what gives them their powers,” this was getting more insane by the second. He ( _he!?_ ) floated down over to the lion pendant and sat beside it. “This one… this one is now yours. You’ve been entrusted with this power because there is an evil lurking in your world- something not even Ladybug and Chat Noir can fight off- and they need help to fight it. This is the Lion Miraculous. Guard it with your life, never take it off,” he smirked, “Would you like to try it on?”

 

Still slightly confused, Lily nodded and placed the necklace on herself.

 

“Wha-what do I do now?”

 

“Just say- _Roar, hunt’s on_.”

 

“Roarr,” she hesitated, “H-hunt’s on!”

 

She felt a whirl of power rush through her, and when she looked at herself in the mirror, saw that she had completely changed.

 

She was in a golden bodysuit with black lining and a _tail_ , lion ears and a lion-eye mask. She also had a black belt with a holster for something that felt oddly like a whip, as well as a black wristband with words on it and a screen. Probably for communication or something.

 

“This-this is _so **cool**_!”

 

She’d seen Ladybug and Chat Noir do all sort of things… she wondered if she could do them too. She climbed out of her window- success- and raced across the roof- double success- she jumped across her roof and the next-building’s- triple success- and, to top it all off, she jumped to the ground. A jump that she _should_ have broken half her bones in, but instead barely felt anything. _Quadruple success!_

 

“This is so cool,” she said to herself, before _jumping_ back up to her window and saying, “Roarr… uh, hunt’s off? I guess.”

 

Suddenly, she felt quite a bit less powerful, and a quick glance at herself in the mirror showed why. She was back to normal. She turned to face the- what was it that he called himself? Ah, yes- kwami.

 

She noticed that she still had the wristband on.

 

“That,” Roarr said, “is to communicate amongst yourselves.”

 

“O-ourselves?”

 

“Yes. You and the other heroes of this city.”

 

Wha-o.M. _G_! She was going to be in contact wITH CHAT NOIR AND LADYBUG!!!

 

“How did I get you?”

 

“A kwami master must’ve have deemed you worthy.”

 

“A- what? A kwami master?”

 

“Yes, they’re in charge of all of us,” he said. “They guard us to keep us away from the forces of evil, and distribute us when said forces are present.”

 

“So-so I was chosen?”

 

“Yes. Lily, you must be careful to keep this a secret. Nobody can _ever_ know your true identity.”

 

She was so excited she didn’t even realize that she hadn’t said her name at all. “Wait- not even… not even James? What about my sister- _Petunia_?”

 

“No Lily, I'm afraid not. Besides, telling them endangers them. If they know, then Voldemort knows.”

 

Voldemort. That was the guy that kept sending the akumas.

 

She sighed. “OK, fine. You have my word… and I _never_ take this necklace off?”

 

“No- guard it with your _life_!”

 

“Will do!”


	4. Chapter 4

Regulus knew it was wrong to sneak out of the house. Of course he did. But Sirius hated Barty and Severus, and would _never_ have let Regulus go out with them.

 

A few years ago, Regulus may have just sighed and accepted it- regardless of how unhappy it made him feel, and the resentment it built up within him, but ever since he’d met Plagg, he’d been more assertive and came to realize that if what he did had no serious consequences, it wasn’t anyone’s sodding right to dictate to him what he could and couldn’t do.

 

He’d transformed and raced to an alley near where he was due to meet his two friends. A few moments later they arrived. Barty with his smooth, charming, arrogance and Severus… well, Regulus felt kind of bad for the boy. He’d had a rough childhood- even worse than his and Sirius’s- and that had caused him to become quite depressed in his short, tragic life. Still, even if he were cursed to wear the face of the man whom he hated most in the world, Severus didn’t look _ugly_ , just gloomy.

 

“Regulus!” Barty greeted, “Finally ditched that brother of yours, I see.”

 

Regulus laughed. Forget Severus and Sirius’s beef- the real drama was between _Barty_ and Sirius.

 

It had all started when Sirius had caught Regulus and Barty smoking behind some souvenir store. It had been Regulus’s first (and last) smoke, handed to him by Barty with a ‘don’t knock it till you try it,’ gesture and _somehow_ Sirius had found them.

 

After that, Sirius had forbade Regulus from seeing Barty- Regulus however, had just decided to keep the meetings a secret, and when Barty found out, he decided to ‘teach Sirius a lesson about dictating who a person could and couldn’t hang around,’ or, as Regulus called it, ‘a guide to love, loss and desperation, aka getting dumped- by Bartemius Crouch Jr.’

 

Ever since then, it’d just been one bitter dispute after the other. Sirius got a motorbike, so Barty got one (and a convertible- but he’d inherited that from his mother when she passed, so he rarely ever used it). Barty came from a wealthy family- his father was a Judge- that was friends with Regulus’s parents. Sirius had been especially displeased every time Barty’s family had been invited over for dinner.

 

“Where’re we going?” Regulus questioned, as he followed the two boys.

 

“Hogs’ head!” Snape smirked.

 

“The bar or the club?”

 

“Dude,” Barty roled his eyes, “Do we _look_ old enough to skip a club?”

 

The Hoggs’ Head Inn was a _huge_ building over a century old that had been renovated several times. It now housed a bar, a club, a set of apartments above it, and- Regulus was pretty sure- a brothel in its basement.

 

It was a shady place that attracted the widest sort of clientele- but it was fucking cheap, and that tended to draw in the younger people in London. The bouncers there also had a tendency not to check your ID, so one had to be wary of underage teens.

 

.

 

Sirius glanced at the clock on the wall. Well, it was a Friday night, and he knew that Regulus was asleep… and it _had_ been a while since he’d last gotten laid…

 

Hmmm… where to go, where to go? The Hog’s Head had a ton of hot, wasted chicks… He glanced at his phone. Come to think of it, it’d been a while since Peter had last gotten laid as well… perhaps he ought to call the younger man, he was sure the boy could find _some_ girl drunk enough to go home with him.

 

Which is how Sirius found himself at the Hog’s Head making out with a hot blonde.

 

“Come on!” she said, through the noise. “I need to tell my brother that we’re… leaving?”

 

“Fuck yeah!” she was going _home_ with him! _Yes!_

 

They walked on through the crowd.

 

.

 

Regulus was having the time of his life- Barty was seducing some girl, Severus had met up with Mulciber and Avery who had come because they and Flint had decided to have a guys’ night out after a particularly grueling Rugby match had gone south for them.

 

And Regulus? Regulus was making out with a hot blond just a few years older than him. His name was gods-knew-what and he was from gods-knew-where. He had gods-knew-what-color-eyes, and a tongue that made Regulus want to fall down to his knees!

 

That was when he suddenly felt himself being wrenched away from his Arthurian Knight and being turned to face-… _crap!_

 

“What the bloody _fucking helL ARE YOU DOING_!?” Sirius screamed in his face.

 

“Woah-” the girl his brother was with frowned, “dude- are you homophobic or something?”

 

“No- but I _do_ want to know why my underage brother is at this club when he should be _at home **sleeping**_!”

 

“Wait-wait,” the guy he’d been kissing blushed. “You’re _underage_!?”

 

“I’m over sixteen,” Regulus rolled his eyes.

 

“Uh…” before the guy could react, however, Sirius had whisked him off.

 

Knowing better than to argue with his brother when he was angry, Regulus didn’t say a word as he was practically thrown onto the motorbike and simply wrapped his arms around Sirius as they rode off.

 

.

 

“What the _bloody fucking **hell**_ were you thinking!?” Sirius screamed.

 

“I didn’t drink!” Regulus protested. He hadn’t _technically_ broken the law.

 

“You’re _seve **nteen**_ \- what the hell were you doing in the shadiest club in all of England!? There’s a _brothel_ in there, Regulus! Someone could have stolen you off and we’d never have heard from you again! Gods- were you even _thinking_ , why di-” Sirius paused, and the expression on his face… Regulus had never been more scared in his life. “It was Crouch,” he said, softly, plainly… _calmly_. “It was Crouch,” he repeated, almost in a daze. He spun on Regulus. “It was _Crouch_ , wasn’t it?”

 

No reply. “It was _CrOUCH!”_

“Yes, yes!” Regulus could feel the tears rolling down his face. “Yes- it _was_ Barty, but we weren’t there alone! We had Severus, and Avery, and Mulciber and-and _Flint_!”

 

“That’s it,” Sirius said, calmly. “You’re never seeing them again.”

 

“Wha-what,” Regulus stuttered, “You can’t do that!”

 

“Watch me!”

 

“You have no control over me!”

 

“No,” Sirius smirked with malice in his eyes. “But mother and father do, and I’m sure they won’t react positively to their youngest son’s presence in a whorehouse!”

 

“They’ll wonder why you were there too!” Regulus protested, realizing that he was fighting a losing battle.

 

“They have no expectations of me- I wonder how Crouch’s father will react to his _underage_ son being present as well!”

 

Regulus’s eyes widened. No. Sirius couldn’t. That would-Barty would- “You- Barty..-”

 

“Would never be allowed around you again.”

 

“No.” Regulus snapped. “No, you won’t do any of that, you know why? Because from now on I’m _not_ ‘your problem.’”

 

Sirius seemed to lose a bit of his confidence. “What do you mean?” he hissed.

 

“I mean that I'm leaving. I'm out.”

 

“Reg-”

 

“I’m moving in with Barty,” that was a lie, but he was sure that the younger male would be fine with it. In his fury, he got up and exited the door, “Goodbye, Siri.”

 

Little did either brother know that they were being watched from far, far away.

 

“Aah, yes… an older brother desperate to keep his younger brother from straying down the wrong path… come, my little Akuma, go forth and evilize him,” the man watched as a purple butterfly flew through the transportation window out into the open world… out into the room that Sirius was in.

 

“Guardian, I am Voldemort. I will give you the power to keep your brother and those you love safe, in return, all I ask is that you give me Ladybug and Chat Noirs’ Miraculouses.”

 

A pause.

 

“Yes, Voldemort.”


	5. Chapter 5

Regulus gasped as he suddenly saw shards burst up from his bedroom floor and surround him.

 

“Wha- what’s going on?” he asked Plagg.

 

“If I had to guess, your brother probably got akumatized.”

 

“Oh no,” Regulus groaned. “Gah- I hadn’t wanted to make him _angry_ … but it’s also not his place to dictate what I can and can’t do. He’s probably going to go after Barty… Plagg-”

 

“Oh no,” his ever-lazy companion groaned.

 

“ _Claws out!_ ”

 

He felt the rush of adrenaline that came with transforming sweep over him and, in the blink of an eye, he had surely enough turned into Chat Noir.

 

He felt the shards give way around him from the energy let out by his transformation, and he zipped off to find his brother before he could do any real damage, sending Ladybug a quick message first.

 

He crouched low on the roof of the Crouch residence. Hmmm, he knew that Barty was inside, but he hadn’t heard a struggle. Perhaps Sirius had thought that he would still be out?

 

Regulus glanced at his communicater to find that Ladybug hadn’t only _read_ his message, he’s _also_ replied.

 

**LB: Hey- so I gave out the Lion Miraculous already. I’m bringing her with me for a test-run!**

He messaged back:

 

**CN: Already? Damn.**

**CN: OK, well I’m just going to check up on stuff, I’ll message you once I find out where the akumatized victim is.**

This was taking too long. Quickly he zipped in through Barty’s window… and the boy wasn’t there. Fuck. He must’ve picked up some girl at the club. Huh… Barty tended to abuse motels when it came to his one-night stands, so Regulus was fairly sure that that was where he’d find him. What was the name of that one he liked so much? The Green Place? That was downtown.

 

Regulus zipped off to find Barty.

 

.

 

“Hello,” Remus greeted whom he knew was Lily.

 

“Ladybug!” she exclaimed. “What-what’re you doing here?”

 

“I’ve come to fetch you. London needs your help, uh…”

 

“Lionne,” she smiled.

 

“Lionne,” he smiled back. “Come on, this is your first call to duty.”

 

As they ran across roofs she called out. “How did you know where to find me?”

 

“I gave you your Miraculous,” he smiled.

 

“Wait-who are you?” she frowned, feeling a sudden breach of privacy.

 

“I can’t tell you.”

 

“But you know who I am!”

 

“Yes. But that was only because I _needed to_ in order to give you your Miraculous. Trust me, the less we know the better. What if someone tortured you into finding out who I was? They’d steal my Miraculous, and then, assuming Chat Noir had told someone who _he_ was, they’d steal his too, and that’s dangerous because, well, together the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous can seriously fuck up the _world_!”

 

“OK.” She conceded.

 

“Thank you. Now, come on. Chat said to meet him by the Green Place Motel for gods’ know what reason.”

 

.

 

Regulus frowned when the two heroes arrived. Why? Because the moment Lionne touched down, she ran at him.

 

“OMG, OMG, _OMG_!” she gasped, bouncing on his feet. “It’s- you’re- _OMG!_ ”

 

Regulus cast a look at Ladybug, the sentiment clear. _Who the fuck did you pick, and_ why!?

 

“Hello, uh…”

 

“Lionne,” she stuck out her hand, which he shook cordially. It would not do well to make an enemy out of an ally.

 

“Where is, uh…”

 

“Sirius- Sirius Black,” Regulus grimaced, saying his brother’s name like that felt so weird… so _wrong_. “I have no idea. I lost him a few miles back.”

 

“S-Sirius?” Lionne gasped.

 

That was interesting. It appeared as though the woman knew him… then again, Regulus thought, half the women in London ‘knew’ his brother.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“How’d he get akumatized?” Ladybug asked.

 

“No clue,” Regulus lied. “But I have reason to believe that he’ll be coming here.”

 

“What reason?” Ladybug frowned.

 

“Er, word around the street. Apparently there was some sort of altercation between him and some boy called Bart.”

 

“Barty,” Ladybug frowned. “Hmm… doesn’t Black have a brother?”

 

“Yeah,” Lionne chimed in, “Regulus!”

 

Definitely someone who knew Sirius.

 

“Uh… yeah, yeah, I think so.”

 

“We ought to find him- he can probably give us some insight on the situation!” Ladybug announced.

 

“Uh…” _fuck!_ “Sure, but one of us ought to stay here in case he shows up. Why don’t we send, uhm, Lionne back to find him. I’ll guard this place. You can search for Black- make sure he doesn’t wreak too much havoc on the city,” his voice took on an authoritative tone.

 

“Aye aye, Chat!” Lionne beamed, zipping off. She hadn’t asked for directions, Regulus thought, she must have been over at some point.

 

“Cheers,” Ladybug took a step off of the building, his yoyo catching around a fixture on a building and propelling him upwards and over it.

 

Regulus smirked fondly. Show off.

 

.

 

In less than ten minutes Sirius had arrived. The older boy was decked in black with a neon blue helmet with orange flames painted on it, and was riding Elvendork, his motorbike. He had a large, glowing, metal, neon blue glove over his hand.

 

 _That must be where the Akuma is_ , Regulus frowned.

 

“Bart-eem-i-usss!” Sirius called out, his voice sing-songy. “Come out come out wherever you aarree!”

 

Regulus zipped into the motel room where he knew that he’d find Barty- room 1007.

 

He shut his eyes before he got in, not wanting to see what he knew that he’d see. Sure enough, he heard some girl let out a gasp.

 

He figured that he’d given the two enough time, so he opened his eyes. Barty had _thankfully_ started with his pants, the girl had just jumped under the sheets.

 

“Chat Noir,” Barty frowned. “What… what are you doing here?”

 

“There’s an Akumatized victim on the loose,” Regulus informed him. “Sirius Black- I have reason to believe that he is coming after you.”

 

“What do you mean- _why_?”

 

“Well, he _is_ outside of this motel at this very moment, and he _did_ just express in interest as to your whereabouts.”

 

“Fuck!” Barty cursed. “I should never have- urgh! I guess I shouldn’t have taken Reg out tonight…”

 

“I’m sure it wasn’t your fault,” Regulus said, softly. “I’m sure whomever this ‘Reg’ is can control themselves as well.”

 

“It’s just- Black never gives him any space! It’s like, if Sirius disagrees with something or just doesn’t like it, Regulus can’t do it because of his brother’s bias- and that’s not _fair_! And the man’s a bloody hypocrite! Regulus can’t go out to Hog’s Head but _Sirius can!_?” Barty seethed.

 

“Hey, hey,” Regulus patted his friend’s shoulder. “It’s alright, I’m sure that you guys’ll all sort it out later, but for now it’s too dangerous. We need to get you to a safe place. C’mon!” he grabbed Barty’s hand.

 

“Where’re you taking me?” Barty shouted as the wind whipped at the both of them.

 

“The Big Ben- it’s safe up there.”

 

.

 

Remus had had no luck finding Sirius- and yet he saw evidence of his old friend’s work everywhere. Shards of rock encircling people- seedy bars and brothels which were destroyed completely. Of course, even as a villain Sirius’s main concern was protecting people. He felt a buzz in his pocket. It was a message from Chat Noir.

 

**CN: Found Black- am taking Barty to the top of the Big Ben rn.**

**CN: Lure Black there- we’ll set up a track**

**CN: P. sure the Akua is n his glve- th big blue one.**

Whatever Chat was doing, he better be in a rush, Remus thought, because there was no other possible excuse for grammar and spelling that bad.

 

He sent a quick message to Lionne.

 

**CN: Act. You and Lionne ed to clear het aple.**

**CN: *clear the place**

**CN: I have a paln**

 

.

 

Sirius- no, the _Guardian_ was seething. Crouch was at the top of the Clock- he knew it. He stamped his foot and watched in satisfaction as shards raced up the tower.

 

Then- out of nowhere, the tower came crumbling down. His last sight before he blacked out was that of Chat Noir jumping off the falling monument with bloody fucking Crouch.

 

.

 

Remus raced to his fallen friend who was covered by Debris, and pulled him up. He ripped the glove off of Sirius and broke it in two. He cleansed the Akuma and watched it fly away, before picking his best friend of over a decade up and racing him off to a hospital.

 

.

 

Lily gasped in awe. That was so _cool_! _And_ she had been a part of it!

 

Wait- OMGOMG _OMG_!!! She was probably going to be on the LadyBlog tomorrow- Rita Skeeter was going to write about _her_! OMG!

 

.

 

When Sirius woke up, it was to the bright white of a hospital, and all of his friends (and his brother) surrounding him.

 

His throat was dry. He gasped, trying to speak, Remus gave him the glass of water on his bedside.

 

“I-hu.. uhm, what’s- what happened to me?”

 

“You got a concussion,” Lily smiled, gently, “But you’re all OK now- it was only mild. You'll be clear to go in a bit.”

 

“What happened?”

 

“What do you remember?”

 

“I remember… I remember feeling angry and then- and then,” Sirius felt tears threaten to leak from his eyes. “And then blank. Null. Void. I felt nothing- my body wasn’t my own.”

 

There were expressions of sympathy from all around him. But that wasn’t what he wanted. He stared at his brother, who hadn’t said a word at all.

 

“Uh, guys,” Sirius turned to his friends. “Umm, thanks for coming! But, if you don’t mind, I kinda want a moment with Regulus.”

 

He saw his brother bristle. Of course. Sirius nearly _never_ said Reggie’s full name.

 

“Reg,” Sirius said, as soon as his friends were out of earshot. “Reg, look, I’m sorry.”

 

“No need, Siri,” Regulus smiled softly at him. “Look, just- just get better. Anything you want to say, we can talk about when you’re well again.”

 

“I am- fuck,” Sirius cursed, sitting up. “Reg- I _am_ well, I just… I just- I’m sorry I got so mad. I just don’t want you going down the wrong road…”

 

“It’s OK, Siri, I understand. I love you too,” Reg smiled.

 

“Are you… are you still going to move out?” Sirius hated the way that he sounded. _Broken_ , almost.

 

Regulus looked guilty. Oh no. _Here it comes_. “I was never going to move out, Siri. I just- I got so angry… and, well, I lied.”

 

That was _not_ what he’d been expecting.

 

“You-wha-you _lied_?” oddly enough he was _way_ more relieved than upset or angry.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Listen,” Sirius sighed. “Reg- I was way out of line. I just- I saw you at the _Hog’s Head_ of all places and I flipped because- well, you were _supposed_ to be at home!”

 

“I know, I’m sorry,” Regulus sighed as well, resting his head on his brother’s chest. Damn, today had been _exhausting_! “I have a proposal for you.”

 

“You do?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“No more secrets,” Regulus could feel his brother’s laugh.

 

“That’s good. No more secrets, Reg. Full disclosure.”

 

“Full disclosure,” Regulus repeated.


	6. Chapter 6

A week had come and gone and Regulus was panicking. Who was he supposed to give his Miraculouses to?

 

There was Barty, of course, but could he _really_ trust his best-friend with that kind of power? Besides, Regulus doubted either Miraculous would suit Barty well.

 

There was Sev- but asides from the fact that neither Miraculous suited the boy either, he only knew Severus to an extent. Besides, he would feel as though he were betraying Sirius by giving his arch nemesis power (well, _one_ of his **_many_** arch-nemeses power).

 

Sirius? Regulus laughed at the thought the moment it crossed his mind. There was no way in _hell_ that he was going to give his uber-irresponsible brother any form of power- what Sirius had at the moment was enough!

 

He didn’t really trust any of the people in his classes either. He was _stuck_!

 

Which is why on Saturday the 23rd of June, 2018, Regulus was having a full-blown panic-attack when he couldn’t find either Miraculous.

 

They’d been in his pant pocket and- oh _shit_ , they must have fallen out! But where? _Where_?

 

A sudden memory of him jogging to catch the bus flashed into his mind and he suddenly wanted to cry. How could he have been so careless? Holy shit- what if they found their way into the _Death Eaters’ hands!?_

 

This was bad-this was _bad_! He transformed and raced down to the pavement he’d probably lost them at. _Nothing_! Holy. Fucking. _Shit_!!

 

.

 

Sirius was having a rather happy, calm day. James had come over to check up on him, and they were currently playing Super Mario Kart.

 

“Ow!” James said, rubbing his butt. “I just sat on something sharp.” He reached down for it and realized that it wasn’t some _thing_ , but rather some _thing **s**_.

 

Two small somethings. A pendant of a tooth (a rather large canine to be precise) and an anklet that looked as though it were made out of something like… like _ivory_? James wasn’t really sure what it was.

 

“What’re those?” Sirius frowned.

 

James shrugged and handed the tooth-thing to Sirius.

 

The minute he did, light exploded from both objects.

 

Out popped a shaggy-looking, chibi-like, black dog from Sirius’s object, and a- well, _something_ that was auburn and had Antler’s from James’s one.

 

“Hello, Siri-” the one began whilst the other began, “Hello, Ja-”

 

And at that moment _everyone_ freaked out.

 

“What're you-” the dog began.

 

“He’s not supposed to-” the antlered one continued.

 

“Aaaaagh!” Sirius and James both screamed.

 

Suddenly, a loud howl from the dog-like one ended the mess.

 

“Look-” it was talking to Antlers. “Look, this was clearly an accident- let’s just get over it. It could have been a lot worse- what if we had been Ladybug and Chat Noir’s kwamis.”

 

“The world would end,” Antlers conceded.

 

“What the- will somebody _please_ tell me what the **_hell_** is going on!?” Sirius exclaimed.

 

“We are kwamis,” the dog began. “I am Grimm, and he is, uh…”

 

“Stagg,” Antlers said.

 

“We’ve been given to you because _clearly_ there’s something crazy going on in your city, and you’ve been chosen to assist.”

 

“What the- wait, you mentioned Ladybug and Chat Noir,” James’s eyes lit up, “does that mean that _we’re_ going to be- that we’ll be.”

 

“Superheroes?” Stagg grinned. “Yup!”

 

Sirius and James turned and both let out a whoop. _Fuck yes, they were going to have **powers**_! In your _face_ Lily, Remus, Peter and Reg!

 

“Now, you two know the other has a Miraculous,” Grimm warned, “But you need to make sure _other_ people don’t, or else you could be in grave danger. Voldemort and his Death Eaters will stop at nothing to get to you- even if that means targeting the ones you love most.”

 

“Reg…” Sirius paled, he was just a _kid_ , not even eighteen yet! _Fuck_!

 

“Lily…” James also paled. His _girlfriend_? What kind of coward hurts someone just to get back at somebody else?

 

“To get me to transform,” Grimm spoke to Sirius now, “All you have to say is ‘ _Grimm, fangs **out**_.’”

 

“And for me,” Stagg spoke to James, “It’s just ‘ _Stagg- **prongs out!**_.’”

 

The two boys nodded.

 

“Grimm!” Sirius shouted. “Fangs _out_!”

 

“Stagg- _prongs out_ ,” James followed suit.

 

The two stood in front of each other, transformed. James was in an auburn body-suit, antlers on his head, and a whistle in his belt. Sirius was in a black body-suit, gloves that when Sirius flexed his hands a certain way turned into _clawed_ hands, two fangs showing in his mouth, hungry yellow eyes, dog ears and…

 

James laughed. “Dude,” he snorted. “Is that- do you have a _tail!?_ ”

 

“Shut up!” Sirius hissed.

 

“Let’s go out and test out powers!”

 

“’m kay! Gotta be quick though- don’t want Regulus to get back while we’re gone.”

 

“Dude, chill, we’ll de-transform in a park or something and say we went out for ice-cream.”

 

Somehow that didn’t sit well with Sirius. He’d promised Regulus _full disclosure_. Yet here he was, keeping a secret from him… another lie. Still, he reasoned, it was to keep Regulus safe.

 

He’d do anything in the world to keep his brother safe.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Regulus has a huge self-hate episode near the end of this chapter.

Maître Bleu was back. _Fuck_ , cursed Regulus.

 

He sent a message out to Ladybug and Lionne (whose contact details he’d received from Ladybug) and zipped off to fight that fucking bird.

 

He gasped in awe as he saw two unknown figures already fighting Bleu. OMG! It was the Dog and Stag Miraculouses!

 

You know what, he thought to himself, mouth in a straight line, as long as they were good people and on their side, it didn’t really matter how they’d acquired them.

 

He saw Ladybug and Lionne show up. Ha! Bleu might be able to take on the two newbies, but alone he was no match for him and Ladybug.

 

Regulus felt a heavy force slam him into the pavement… looked like Bleu wasn’t alone. It was off of him almost as soon as it was on him though, as Ladybug yanked it off of him with his yoyo.

 

It was Jaws… and Stick. _Great_. The Hyena and the Honey badger. And… oh fuck, _fuck_ \- Spinerette was here! Nonono, this was _bad_! The Spider Miraculous holder was a wild card, she seldom obeyed the collective order of her group and she _never_ _backed down_.

 

“C’mon, c’mon little Kitty,” she cooed at him. “C’m out and _pla-ay_!”

 

 _Not today_ , he thought. But in the time it had taken him to think that, he suddenly felt a large gust of wind hit him from behind and he was knocked to the ground in front of her. This was _bad_ , they _never worked together_ \- and… and now?

 

His body was suddenly encompassed by a large web. He tried to see if he could get free- but had no luck doing so.

 

“Cataclysm!” he shouted, swiping at the net and freeing himself before whacking the approaching girl to the ground with his pole.

 

He vaulted away some seven blocks to the south, feeling himself lose power and… just in time. Just as he touched down in the alleyway he de-transformed. He held his tired Kwami in his hands. “Don’t worry, Plagg. There’s a supermarket right here, I’ll get you working again.”

 

He rushed into the store and bought two packs of Camembert. Plagg finished his meal in seconds and they were quickly able to rejoin the fight… the fight that it appeared they were losing.

 

“Dog!” Regulus shouted at the Dog Miraculous holder. “Use your Nightmare Shift to get Spinerette. Stag, help him.”

 

“Aye!” the two went off to do just that.

“Lionne and Ladybug- you two take care of Stick and Jaws!”

 

Ladybug nodded and he and Lionne went off to sort that mess out.

 

That just left him and Maître Bleu.

 

He pounced. Bleu dodged him and laughed. “Typical Chat- fond of chasing birds, are you?”

 

“Just you,” he growled.

 

“Oh- I feel _so special_ ,” Bleu drawled. He shot a huge gust of wind at Regulus. Enough to knock him off of the roof.

 

Regulus twirled his pole quickly, deflecting the wind. “Give it up, Bleu. You’re surrounded!”

 

“Not quite!” the man smirked. “ _Eternal gust!”_

 

Suddenly, a huge tsunami of wind flooded the air, turning over cars and anyone unfortunate enough to be outside at the moment. Unfortunately, it also had the very grave effect of disrupting the fights going on below them. Regulus was knocked back into the chimney of the roof that they were on.

 

He heard footsteps, felt a difference in the air, and then suddenly Bleu was standing right in front of him. “Such a pity, pretty kitty,” he grinned. “Terrible that we have to fight on opposing sides.”

 

And then, all of a sudden, Regulus felt Bleu’s lips on his and he could feel tears streaming down his own face. He hated Bleu- _hated_ _the man_! Hated how he knew- and of course he knew, Regulus was sure that even _Ladybug knew_ … maybe even Voldemort…

 

Regulus flung Bleu off of him. He leapt off of the building to go and finish him off- but he was gone. He was gone, and so were the rest of his little ‘friends.’

 

Regulus sped back to the apartment, de-transformed, and collapsed on his bed, a crying mess. He hated Bleu, he hated Voldemort… but most importantly, he hated himself. Hated the way he felt. _Urgh_! Why couldn’t he just throw away his completely irrational feelings for Bleu and fight him!? _Why!?_

 

Regulus hated the fact that Bleu always got away- blamed himself for it. Of course he did- after all, it was _his fault_! His fault for being a useless, pathetic excuse for a ‘hero.’

 

“Heyyy…” Plagg always tried to comfort him after fights with Bleu. “Don’t blame yourself- we can’t control who we like.”

 

“We should- or else we’re just base and don’t deserve to live.”

 

“Don’t be like that- you’re doing it again- the whole ‘I have a duty’ thing.”

 

“Don’t I?” Regulus asked, tears streaming his face. “Don’t I have a duty to put aside personal feelings to protect the people who rely on me?”

 

“You do, Reg. But at the same time, you’re _human_. You’re _supposed to be flawed_. Besides, you know that it’s wrong. I’m sure that your feelings will go away in time. Why don’t you go out tonight? Get laid? I’m sure that that’ll take your mind off of things.”

 

“I don’t deserve to be happy.”

 

“Yes you _do_.”

 

“No I don’t- he was _right there_ , Plagg- we _had him_!”

 

“Uh- no. He had _you_ , and he took you! See, it’s not so bad. At least the feelings are mutual.”

 

“Haha, very funny, I’m glad that you're taking amusement out of my pain.”

 

“I’m not just- just, OK, if you’re not going to go out and be happy, then at least have a glass of water and sleep- you’ll feel better in the morning.”

 

.

 

Evan de-transformed.

 

“You know- we can’t keep wreaking havoc on London just so you can see Noir,” Bellatrix grumbled.

 

“Please- you _love_ wreaking havoc on London, it adds spice to your weekend,” Evan smirked.

 

“Whatever- I doubt that the Dark Lord would approve.”

 

“Anytime we mess with either Ladybug or Chat Noir- anytime we get even the tiniest step closer to discovering their true identities, the Dark Lord is pleased.”

 

“He’s not wrong, y’know,” Rabastan chimed in.

 

“Whatever,” Bellatrix rolled her eyes. “Anyways, I’ve gotta go drop Rab back off in London-”

 

“Hey- I can take the bus~”

 

“See you around,” she ruffled Evan’s hair.

 


	8. Chapter 8

Remus zipped in through his window and de-transformed. Whew- what a rush! He knew that he should probably check up on Chat and see how he was doing- but he also knew that talking about it might make it worse. After all, it was bad enough having a crush on your enemy, let alone having confirmation that your fighting partner knew about said crush.

 

Before leaving he’d managed to get the new Superheroes names and, honestly, Remus had to say that he was impressed that Chat had given his two out so quickly. Remus still had no idea who to give the Chameleon to.

 

He sent a quick message to Chat Noir.

 

**LB: Hey! Great job choosing Padfoot and Prongs!**

**LB: They really seem to fit their Miraculouses**

Remus cursed. That sounded condescending.

 

**LB: Hey- you looked pretty upset today.**

**LB: Anything you want to talk about?**

He was surprised that Chat Noir answered him at all.

 

**CN: Yeah- sorry. Just a little, you know, confused and stuff.**

**LB: I don’t blame you- today was a mess!**

**CN: Tell me about it! Hey, are we still going on the Daily Prophet tomorrow?**

**LB: You can bet on it!**

**CN: Also, you wouldn’t happen to have Padfoot and Prongs’s contacts, would you?**

 

Well that was peculiar. Shouldn’t Chat Noir have gotten them as soon as he’d given them their Miraculouses? Remus shrugged, oh well, Chat could be careless sometimes, perhaps he’d forgotten.

 

**LB: Yeah- it’s PF for Padfoot and PG for Prongs.**

**LB: I assume that I won’t have to tell you whom is whom.**

Remus teased.

 

**CN: No- I think I got it.**

**CN: Hmm… let’s see, ‘Prongs’ like… antlers? Must be the dog!**

Remus barked out a laugh. Trust Chat to pull this.

 

**CN: No, but seriously though, you can’t be late. We’re on air at 8:30 am.**

**LB: Shouldn’t we invite the others?**

**CN: I don’t think so- a) they're not used to publicity and b) it would be kind of rude to spring up more people on her.**

 

Remus could see Chat Noir’s point.

 

**LB: Okay then! Good night!**

**CN: G’night!**

Seriously, Chat Noir typed like he was a teenager or something.

 

.

 

Sirius de-transformed in his bedroom. What a rush! He’d gotten to fight a bad guy- alongside _Chat Noir and Ladybug!_

 

He’d _detained_ a bad guy- received orders from **_The_** _Chat Noir_ \- what could be more exciting than that!?

 

He still felt guilt settle in the pit of his stomach. _This wasn’t full disclosure_.

 

“Regulus,” he called. “Reggie- are you hungry?”

 

He didn’t receive a reply. He frowned. He swore to all the gods above- if Regulus wasn’t in his bedroom…

 

He walked into his younger brother’s room- unlocking the door using a trick he’d learnt the previous year.

 

There was Regulus, face down on his bed… wait- was he _crying_!?

 

Sirius sat down next to his brother and ran a hand through his head. “Reggie?”

 

“Go away!” his voice was muffled as he spoke into the mattress.

 

“Reggie, what happened?”

 

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

 

“Boy problems?”

 

For some reason, that seemed to be the trigger word. Regulus shoved Sirius out of his room, slammed the door shut _and_ when Sirius tried to re-enter he found that the door was blocked. Smart little fucker.

 

.

 

Evan pulled into the parking lot of Fischer’s Lane- a tall stack of 112 apartments. He parked in the guest area- of course he did, he didn’t live in _London_ \- he lived in _Cambridge_.

 

He got in the elevator and hit the button for the twelfth floor- where the penthouses were!

 

Using his key to the apartment, he let himself into the south-east penthouse. There were four penthouses in the building. The North East (aka _The View_ ), the North West ( _Casa_ ) ,the South West (aka _Havana_ ), and the South East ( _Haven_ ).

 

They were all two storeys tall with 150 m^2 on each floor. He wasn’t sure about the others, but he knew that this one had 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms, a magnificent sitting area, a toilet and a study that was originally another bedroom. It had a beautiful, modern kitchen, and two steps that led up to a terrace. Outside was shrouded with foliage, and the terrace overlooked a lake. The Black Lake.

 

Evan kicked back on the couch. He’d brought beer with him. He turned on the TV to watch some soccer.

 

Then, Bartemius Crouch Jr walked into the room. “Urgh- you’re back!”

 

“Miss me?” Evan winked.

 

“Gods no- visits from you were bad enough growing up,” Barty shuddered. “All those blasted family reunions…”

 

“Please- you love me!”

 

“Do not!” Barty slid onto the couch. “So- what’s got you in London?”

 

“Weekend away from school- I can’t study _all_ the time!”

 

“You’re the one that went to Cambridge,” Barty rolled his eyes.

 

“I told you to come with me!”

 

“Can’t- London’s my home,” Barty rolled his eyes. “’sides…”

 

“This has nothing to do with Black?”

 

“Gods, Ev- why’re you so judgmental? You know, for a supposed ‘best cousin ever’ it’s pretty funny that you're always quibbing about him despite the fact that you’ve never even met him!”

 

“I’ve met his brother,” Evan snorted. “One Black is enough, thank you very much.”

 

“Regulus is different.”

 

“Oh I know, I know,” Evan rolled his eyes, before taking on a mocking tone. “ _Oh, poor Regulus can’t go out tonight! Oh his evil brother keeps him all locked up! Oh Reggykins how I love thou!_ ”

 

Barty rolled his eyes. “I do _not_ sound like that.”

 

“Do so.”

 

“Whatever. Anyways, he’s coming out with us to the rave at Avery’s tonight. You can meet him them. I’ve only known him a decade.”

 

“ _Fine_ , I’ll meet your wimpy little friend.”

 

.

 

“Sirius,” Regulus called, walking to the kitchen. “I’m going out tonight.”

 

“Where?”

 

“Avery’s.”

 

Sirius shot him a skeptical look.

 

“I swear, I’m telling the truth. Ask someone else if you don’t believe me.”

 

“Fine.”

 

“Fine?” he’d expected his brother to put up more of a fight than that.

 

“Yeah, fine.”

 

“What gives?”

 

“Well, you promised me full disclosure. And since you're being honest, and it’s a safe-enough environment, I have no problem with you going.”

 

“Uh…” Regulus frowned, wondering what the hell his brother was playing at. “Thanks?”

 

“No problem.”

 

.

 

The thing about Avery was that he was rich. Like, crazy-mega rich. Aside from the money he made playing Rugby- Avery was hella smart too. He was a freelance programmer, _and_ he'd made a lot of smart investments over the years.

 

Which is why the twenty-year-old Mathias Avery lived in a fucking _mansion_ in a suburb of London- Hogsmeade. Well, the _outskirts_ of Hogsmeade, anyways. Right next to the Big Lake.

 

Evan knew Avery from high school. They’d been friends. He was chatting with Barty when suddenly Barty turned. “Oh,” he smiled. “Reg’s here!”

 

Evan turned to stare at the wimp, but immediately his words- any insults, taunts or jibes- caught in his mouth.

 

Evan yanked Barty to the side.

 

“What’s the matter?” Barty frowned.

 

“You didn’t tell me he was _hot_!” Evan shout-whispered. (Whispered aggressively?)

 

“Uh,” Barty frowned. “Well, I guess I never noticed it- I mean, I see him as a brother, and incest is all weird and sh~”

 

But Evan wasn’t listening. He watched as the younger Black scion walked forwards, coolly towards the two.

 

“Hey Barty,” he grinned that fucking cute grin of his. “Uh… hi… uh…”

 

“Evan,” Barty chimed in.

 

“Oh!” the boy’s eyes lit up again, “ _You’re_ Evan- Barty doesn’t shut up about you- he _loves_ you!”

 

“Shut. _Up_ ,” Barty hissed.

 

“Likewise,” Evan shot him a charming grin.

 

“Hey,” Regulus frowned at Barty. “Have you seen Sev?”

 

“Yeah- he’s over there getting turned down by redhead number two- _psyke!_ He’s chatting with Mulciber and Avery.”

 

“Gah! I need to go and say ‘hi’ to Avery!” Regulus blushed at having had forgotten his manners.

 

“I’ll go with you,” Evan offered.

 

“Nah, it’s OK,” Regulus smiled at him, “I've been around here enough to not get lost- besides, I don’t want to intrude on cousin-ly bonding. Have fun you two!”

 

The moment that Regulus was out of earshot, Evan spun on Barty.

 

“Dude- you _have_ to help me get with him!”

 

“No fucking way!” Barty hissed. “That’s my best-friend, and no offense, but you don’t exactly have the best reputation with your lovers!”

 

“C’mon- for your _favorite_ cousin?”

 

“Nope! You want him, go get him yourself. I am _not_ getting involved.”

 

“Fine. Just- tell me a bit about him, please.”

 

“What’s there to tell? Just go talk to him.”

 

“Why’re you doing this to me?”

 

“Doing what? I’m doing nothing.”

 

“ _Exactly_!”

 

“Look,” Barty placed his hands on his hips. “Think about this like a test. A test I took first at school and you were about to write. If I help you get with him, I’m cheating for you, and we could both get in trouble- in a literal sense this is where he refuses to be my friend anymore because it went badly and I meddled, and where you screwed up on both of our behalves- basically, we both get expelled. If I tell you _some_ of the answers to the test, I’m still cheating and so are you. If you knew what the topic was on and I gave you some sub-topics that were on the test… well, that’s not as bad and it wouldn’t get us in that much trouble- problem is that as his friend who has never dated or slept with him I wouldn’t know what’s appropriate to share and not. Which brings me to our fourth path…”

 

“Which is?”

 

“I cheer you up pre-test saying that you can do it and that you ought to believe in yourself more- all the while knowing that you can’t do it and believe in yourself too much- and after the test is over, I take you out for ice-cream or something.”

 

“Gee, thanks,” Evan rolled his eyes. “So glad that I can count on you.”

 

“Anytime! Now- I'm not going to throw you out on your own completely, so here goes… Regulus ran track in high school and plays for the university football team.”

 

“Oh,” that he could work with- he himself played Rugby and Softball.

 

“He also likes skiing.”

 

That was… Evan felt his heart leap in his chest. Shit. Oh well, that didn’t _have_ to be a problem. If he didn’t do well on getting the boy to like him, then they wouldn’t go skiing and Evan wouldn’t have to deal with his fear of that frozen-death-trap of a sport!

 

“Now go get him, tiger!” Barty pushed Evan into the crowd, and by the time Evan had gathered his bearings, Barty had disappeared.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: That 'M' rating? Yeah. It becomes highly appropriate in the centre. Read with caution (the whole part is it's own scene, so just skip until you see the next single-line (solo-line?) period).

Evan made the decision to find Avery first. He knew that Regulus had been heading that way. Jackpot! Regulus was standing a little ways off chatting with Mulciber.

 

“Hey,” Evan greeted… actually, he admitted himself, he didn’t really know if Mulciber had a first name. Maybe he was just mononomen? (was that even a word?)

 

“Hey, Evan!” Mulciber grinned. He hadn’t seen the guy much the past two years, since they’d parted ways to go to university- but they'd been best-friends since they were toddlers, and it never really took that much for them to fall back into a comfortable space with one another regardless of how long they’d been separated. “Reg, you’ve met him, right? Barty’s cousin.”

 

“Yeah,” the boy blushed. “I saw him on my way in.”

 

“I still can’t believe you’re here,” Mulciber rolled his eyes, mussing up Regulus’s hair a bit. “Didn’t think that Sirius would let you out.”

 

“I know!” Regulus exclaimed, and Evan found himself with a bitter taste in his mouth. “He was really nice about it.”

 

Barty was right. This was a bad idea. Even Evan knew that he was probably going to sleep with the boy tonight and throw him away the next morning. Why would he want to stay with someone so dependent on someone else? That seemed like a bad idea. It was the equivalent of going out with a child!

 

“Well, nice seeing you again,” Evan grinned at Mulciber. No use ruining one of Barty’s friendships over a fling- gods above knew that Barty already had a small social group without Evan wrecking it. “Hey, you haven’t seen Emmy V, have you?”

 

“Yeah- she was off dancing with Calypso Nott!”

 

“ _Hot_ ,” Evan smirked, slinking off into the party.

 

.

 

Regulus felt uneasy around Barty’s cousin. The moment he’d walked in he’d gotten a… he didn’t really know, to be honest. Just… he’d felt uneasy, was all. Something… something _evil_. Which was why when the boy had offered to come with him to greet Avery, he’d declined abruptly.

 

The boy was attractive, he had had to admit, but still, his presence was ominous _and Regulus tended to find that_ concerning _in a partner/hookup._

 

Regulus glanced down at his watch. Yes. He _did_ in fact still wear one! 10:03. If he didn’t get back home soon he’d be completely useless at the interview the next day, but… he reasoned. A) he didn’t require more than 8 hours of sleep, b) transforming with Plagg took seconds and it probably wouldn’t take more than twenty minutes (even out here) as Chat Noir to get back to Central London and c) he was _horny!_ Damn, it had been a while since he’d last gotten laid, and _yes_ he still remembered that cute blonde at the club.

 

He scanned the room really quickly. Hmmm… Thomas Filch? Nah, he considered the boy a friend. Besides, he didn’t want to ruin the boy’s chances with Ava Flint. Thomas Skeeter? Urgh, they’d had a relationship in highschool, it had been a _nightmare_!

 

Still… Regulus contemplated. The boy hadn’t been a bad lay- and it wasn’t as though he was looking for something _permanent_ or anything. He just wanted a shag.

 

In the end it didn’t take that much. A light hand on the boy’s arm and a casual innuendo. And when he saw the boy responding, a soft press of his lips against his ear and a shallow grind. One thing led to another and they were soon in a cab to the Leakey Cauldron, where Regulus knew that they would get a room without too much of a hassle, and the rooms weren’t terrible(y expensive).

 

Who ever said that he and Sirius were nothing alike?

 

.

 

Regulus yawned waking up. Testing his legs tentatively on the carpeted floor he found that _yes_ , he could indeed walk fine.

 

He glanced at the time. 07:04. Oh well, they were only about a half hour away from the studio by foot, a distance Regulus could _easily_ cover in under five minutes as Chat Noir. He supposed that he could stay in bed a _little_ longer, despite whom he was with.

 

He’d learned a long time ago that his relationship with Thomas was a bit of an… Achilles heel for him. Take, for example, the first time they had broken up. They hadn’t seen or spoken to each other for months, then all of a sudden they’d hooked up for a round of casual sex at someone’s party (Regulus honestly couldn’t remember whose at this point). It _shouldn’t_ have been a problem, except that the next day Regulus had received a message from Thomas and somehow the two wound up talking and were back together by the end of the week. And then, just like that, Regulus remembered all the reasons that he had broken up with Thomas and their rebuilt relationship had barely lasted a month. Next, they’d met at a coffee shop and decided to ‘just be friends’ except that for some insane reason, he’d gotten jealous when he’d seen Thomas with a girl from school and had seduced him out of sheer petty jealousy. Then, not a month later, when Regulus casually mentioned a guy that had been texting him, whom he’d been planning on hooking up with, to Thomas, the guy from the texts suddenly texted Regulus that he never wanted to talk to him again, and that if Regulus ever texted him again he’d ‘file charges on that little boyfriend of [Regulus’s].’

 

So yeah, not exactly the most conventional relationship, or the healthiest by a long-shot. But it wasn’t like Regulus was planning on settling down anytime soon or having children or really anything for that matter. He was too busy being Chat Noir and studying for his Economics degree. That shit was complicated enough.

 

He moved farther into the bed, sighing in relaxation. This was the best he’d felt in a while. No thoughts about Bleu, just him and Skeeter.

 

He felt a small stirring beside him and suddenly a warm arm wrapped around him, pulling him in close to a warm body. _Mmmm…_

 

He breathed in Thomas’s scent. Wood and pine, fitting as the boy _loved_ hiking and just about anything to do with the forest.

 

 _Nononononono_ , Regulus’s mind fought with him. _You’re getting sucked back in. You need to snap out of this!_

 

Regulus was a generally cold person- it was just something that ran in his family, so feeling Thomas’s warmth was soothing in a domestic sort of way.

 

“Always so cold,” he felt Thomas grin against his neck, placing a kiss there. He felt firm hands encircle him so that they were now spooning. “C’mon, babe,” he felt Thomas’s hand sink lower, “we’ve got the room till eleven- we can go one more round,” another hand found it’s way to his ass, “what do you say?”

 

 _Urgh_ , 7:58, he hated that he had a double-life. More so, he hated that he had an interview with the bitch, aka Thomas’s sister, after this.

 

“I’ve gotta go,” he gave Thomas a kiss on his mouth. He ran a hand through the older-boy’s hair lovingly. “We’ll continue this later… say, tonight? If you're free, of course?”

 

“I am if you are.”

 

“It’s a date.”

 

.

 

Regulus hopped through the streets of London dressed as Chat Noir, jumping through a window into studio 135895 at Daily Prophet Studios.

 

On her throne of despair sat the golden-haired queen of despair. Rita Skeeter.

 

Regulus almost scoffed. He was one of the few who knew that that was not her natural hair color, though she bragged about it being so quite often. Her father was blonde, though her mother was brunette. She and her brother both had dirty-blonde hair. Then again, a rumor had long been in circulation that she was some noble person from a foreign land’s (Sweden, if Regulus remembered the last time he'd heard the rumor correctly) bastard daughter, sent to live with the family she currently had for her own safety.

 

Yeah… Regulus was pretty sure she’d started that rumor. He knew for a fact that she had barred her parents from publishing the results of a DNA test proving that she was theirs- then again, she’d pretty much barred most of her family from her life anyways. Thomas was the only one she kept around, and even then they didn’t meet frequently.

 

 _Good_ , Regulus thought to himself, _that way she has less time to poison him. He’s not that bad when he’s not exposed to her influence… he’s kind of sweet, actually_.

 

“Hey!” Ladybug popped in, also through the window, “glad you made it on time.”

 

“Funny, I was about to say the same thing.”

 

“Oh, you know me, always out there, saving the world.”

 

The two boys had always had an easy friendship. Regulus supposed that it was just that they had complementary Miraculouses. Still, there was just something familiar and soothing about Ladybug that let him be more honest and open with him than he was with anyone save Barty.

 

“Places,” a crew member told them.

 

“And we’re live!” Regulus heard the lady behind the camera shout as he and Ladybug were thrust into the guest chairs.

 

“Welcome!” Skeeter beamed. Regulus beamed too. Widely, in fact. _Ha, bitch! I just slept with your brother!_ “I’m Rita Skeeter, and I’m joined here today by Chat Noir and Ladybug. Tell us, how does it feel being the two main driving forces behind London’s safety, at the moment?”

 

“We’re just glad to help,” Ladybug smiled. Regulus smiled up at Ladybug.

 

“And tell me… being superheroes must be hard, do either of you manage to find the time to balance in a love life?”

 

Regulus choked. _Hmm, Rita? I don’t know, does my occasional hookup with your brother count?_

“Uhm, we-we fail to see how that is relevant,” Regulus stuttered.

 

“The viewers want to know what the viewer’s want to know…”

 

“No,” Ladybug replied, “Well, er, at least, _I’m_ not seeing anyone.”

 

“And what about you, Chat? Any lucky lady you want to share about?”

 

“Thanks,” he flashed her a grin. “But I don’t date women.”

 

He saw Skeeter’s jaw drop and smirked. Ladybug didn’t react. Of course he didn’t, Regulus had mentioned it in passing hundreds of times, ‘sorry, can’t stay and chat, my boyfriend’s waiting?’, ‘mmm, this feels almost as good as a hard dick,’ among other things that he was sure that Sirius would most definitely wash out his mouth with soap for.

 

“Interesting,” she smirked, grinning between the two men. “And it must get difficult to maintain personal lives for yourselves… tell me, are you two seeing each other?”

 

Regulus and Ladybug both started spluttering the moment the words left her lips.

 

“No~”

 

“Of course not~”

 

“Not _him_ ~”

 

“I don’t- I wouldn’t~”

 

“Never even _consider_ ~”

 

All the while, Skeeter’s grin grew wider and wider. The little fucktard was enjoying this, Regulus thought, glowering. Wonder how much she’ll enjoy it when word gets around that Thomas and I slept together _again_.

 

“And that’s all the time we have for tonight! I am Rita Skeeter, and we’ll see you next time on ‘ _Teatime talks_.’”

 

.

 

**LB: That was _awful_ , remind me why we agree to these?**

**CN: Because, we need to appear on TV so that the citizens of London see us doing something _other_ than fight, and we appear less menacing. Don’t want them to think they have a pair of vigilantes running around.**

**CN: Well a group of them now, I suppose.**

**LB: But aren’t we?**

**LB: Vigilantes, I mean?**

**CN: I guess**

**CN: But in our case, law enforcement _literally_ cannot fight the war against Voldemort.**

**LB: True. So, watching the game tonight?**

**CN: Ofc. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.**

**LB: OK then.**

**CN: TA!**

 


	10. Chapter 10

And that was how Regulus found himself watching the World Cup beside Thomas.

 

“Dude- Spain’s going to _crush_ Morocco,” Regulus grinned.

 

“Fat chance,” Thomas smiled back. “But I’ll tell you what- if _you_ win, then you can decide what we do tonight. If Morocco wins…”

 

“You get to choose,” Regulus finished. _Mmmmm_ , if he won he knew _exactly_ what they’d be doing.

 

.

 

“What do you want to do?” Barty grinned up at his cousin.

 

“Well, I've still got work to do- but school’s off and the place is only twenty miles away from here.”

 

“Shame, it must’ve been hard driving to and from school.”

 

“Well, I _need_ this internship, so what else can I do? Besides, I graduate next year anyways.”

 

“True- thinking of moving to London after?”

 

“Hmmm, maybe. Or maybe I’ll just move to Harlow for a bit, where it’s nice and quiet.”

 

“Bah! Harlow’s _boring_!”

 

“Maybe, but it’s a _lot_ closer to my current internship, and assuming that they want to take me on after this…”

 

“Then you wouldn’t care, because you want to move back to France anyways,” Barty rolled his eyes. “Remember? Besides, you're graduating from _Cambridge_ , you could find a job _anywhere_.”

 

Evan rolled his eyes. “Uh, I actually _like_ the job I have at the moment thanks. It’s full of nice people, the hours are normal, and the pay is good. And that’s as an _intern_.”

 

“ _Fine_! As long you still spend time with me.”

 

“Of course.”

 

Barty, being an only child, had come to view Evan as a sort of a brother figure. He was definitely closer to Evan than he was Nina and Thorin- Evan’s younger siblings- though he supposed that there was a bit of an age gap there.

 

 _But he was still closer to Reg_.

 

“And we’re still going kayaking tomorrow?”

 

“Definitely!”

 

“Great!” Barty grinned. “Oh yeah, Reg’s coming over on Wednesday to watch the game!”

 

“ _Urgh_!”

 

“What’s with you?” Barty frowned. “One moment you’re fawning over him, the next he’s yesterday’s trash.”

 

“Sorry, I just can’t _stand_ the thought of somebody his age being so subservient- people like that _disgust_ me.”

 

“Well tough- Reg’s my best-friend. Besides, I’m sure that you’d like him. He’s a sweet guy, Ev.”

 

“He’s a _wuss_ , but if it makes you happy I’ll try.”

 

“Thank you. Now come on- there’s a sale today at the store across the street.”

 

“Dope!”

 

.

 

“Oh,” Regulus hated the glee in Sirius’s voice. “ _Someone’s_ been out two nights in a row! So, going to tell me whom this ‘mystery friend’ is? Huh?”

 

“Bog off, Siri,” Regulus rolled his eyes, trudging into his room.

 

“Hey, hey,” Sirius called from the kitchen. “Relax, Reggie, I’m just-just curious, y’know. It’s been a while since you’ve had somebody in your life.”

 

“Almost had someone in my _pants_ that night in the club,” Regulus rolled his eyes.

 

“Yes, yes you did,” Sirius grimaced. “So who his he? Tall? Strong? Handsome? Handsomer than _me_?”

 

“Blargh!” Regulus retched. “Dude- knock it off. But if you must know~”

 

“I must~”

 

“It’s… it’s… uh, fuck. It’s Thomas Skeeter.”

 

“Thomas _Skeeter_ ,” Sirius gaped. “Holy fuck, dude- do you even _remember_ what happened last time!?”

 

“Yes, yes I do, and you know what? It was really my fault for making out with him in front of his girlfriend anyways.”

 

“I will never understand the two of you.”

 

“Oh come on- it’s not like this is serious or anything?”

 

“Does _he_ know that?”

 

“Of course- we hook up for casual sex _all the time_!”

 

“OK, a) Neither did I need to or want to know that, and b)well- _eeeeeeeewww **wwwWWWW** _ but c) I wouldn’t call anything between the two of you ‘casual’ not with the amount of chemistry you two have going on.”

 

“Hey- it’s like I've said before. I’d only start seeing him again if the bitch died.”

 

“Reg- he’s _eighteen_ turning _nineteen_ , he’s in _university_ \- you’ve _got_ to stop making excuses for him and understand that he _is_ the awful person that you think he’s ‘influenced’ to be.”

 

“Exactly! He’s _eighteen_ \- most people’s brains are only properly developed when they're 25!”

 

“ _Reg_!”

 

“Look- Siri, I understand your point. But I lov- _like_ him. Please!”

 

“Fine,” but only because I know that you two are going to break up in like two weeks.

 

.

 

“Hey,” Regulus greeted, slipping into Barty’s apartment, holding a six-pack and a box of food.

 

“Ooooh!” Barty jumped. “What’s in the box!?”

 

“Hotdogs!” Regulus beamed.

 

“ _Yes_!” Barty ran to give his friend a hug. “Come on- the game’s about to start!”

 

Regulus joined his best-friend on the couch where, predictably, there were bowls of definitely-not-foods-consumable-for-dinner that they were most _definitely_ going to be having for dinner. #Hot_dogs_to_the_rescue.

 

Just then Barty’s hot, ominous cousin walked in, his hair slightly damp indicating that he’d just had a shower.

 

“So, where were last night anyways? I tried to text you, but you didn’t respond!” Barty whined.

 

“Oh, uh,” Regulus blushed. “I was, um, out. You know just-just me and, um, y’know. Uhhh… uhm… Er… Se-… er, Sirius. W-we went out and had a beer- haha, you know, just, uhm, two-two brothers is-is a~”

 

“You slept with Thomas Skeeter again, didn’t you?” Barty deadpanned.

 

“Maybe.”

 

“Maybe?”

 

“Er, yeah.”

 

Barty let out a whistle. “Sirius can _not_ be happy with this.”

 

“He isn’t.”

 

“So you told him?”

 

“He figured.”

 

Barty tsked, “And here I was, thinking you’d learned. Hang on- I’ll be back.” Barty slid off of the couch and up the stairs, reappearing with his left hand clutching a box.

 

“Here I have what I like to call my ‘break-up box’,” Barty grinned, opening the lid. “The last time the two of you had any physical contact, I had you write a list of all the reasons you’d decided that you were _never_ going to be with him- _remember_?”

 

“ _Barty!_ ”

 

“No buts!” Barty insisted, shoving the box at Regulus.

 

“Dude- we’re going to miss the game!”

 

“Who gives a crap? This is _way_ more important!”

 

“You’re not going to let us watch until I do this, are you?”

 

“Nope!”

 

“ _Fine_!”

 

Regulus took out the first thing in the box, a neatly folded letter.

 

“Dear self,” he read,

“ _Never go after Thomas again- **ever**. His hotness is not worth it. I am writing to you **bleeding** and I think that I am going to need a cap over my tooth. Do I blame Crys for punching me? No. Do I blame her for setting her brothers on me? A little. But either way, that does not excuse my actions and I never should have made out with Thomas in front of her._

_Whether I like to admit it or not, he is bad for me. We have a toxic relationship. The proof of that is in the bloodspot right above this line that fell from my lip. If we ever try to get with him again, just remember **everything**_ _about him that we hate! To make it easier, I have compiled a list of some classic examples:_

  * _The time we got Hypothermia because he **insisted** on going ice-skating on the Great Lake in early December and it hadn’t frozen over properly yet. (Thank you Barty for coming to find me when we didn’t answer our phone)._
  * _That time at Cass’s when he shoved us into a coat closet during seven minutes and did absolutely nothing (even though we were already going out) because I ‘tend to moan like a slut when we make out.’_
  * _When we first met his sister and he spent all night making fun of me (remember when he bragged about how he was the first person to take me to bed- how ‘inexperienced’ and ‘clumsy’ I was? Newsflash, bitch, you weren’t exactly A+ material yourself)._
  * _When we **weren’t** seeing each other and he decided to tell a guy I was friends with what a slut I was for sleeping with someone a week after we broke up (hate to break it to you, but my world doesn’t exactly revolve around **you** )._
  * _When he told you to stop hanging out with Barty._
  * _When he accused you of cheating on him because ‘you’re always “ **busy**.”_



_And finally,_

  * _When you were **this** close to going out with Brian and he decided he didn’t like that so first he slept with Brian and then, when you were all depressed and sad about Brian calling off your relationship he came and slept with you. And when you found out about him and Brian and confronted him, he said that he had been ‘protecting you.’_



_So yeah, just a few reasons to **never** bed that dumbass again! And if you need more reasons- I’m sure Barty, Severus or Sirius have a few more, just ask them. If you look further into the box, I believe that you will find a few momentos of Thomas and my ‘time together.’ Enjoy!”_

“Wow,” Regulus frowned, looking at the box. Inside was an ovular glass picture frame with him and Thomas inside. The glass had been punched. Regulus winced, looking down at his still scarred knuckles. He looked through the rest of the contents of the box.

 

A teddy bear that Thomas had given Regulus with its head ripped off (Regulus’s doing).

A photograph of Thomas with another girl ( _Lucinda_ , he internally growled).

Regulus’s medical report from when Barty had rushed him to the hospital after he’d fallen in that godsdamned lake.

And finally, a large photo of Thomas’s head that he’d thrown darts into.

 

He felt a lump in his throat. Maybe… maybe this _wasn’t_ such a good idea…

 

“He’s changed,” he protested weakly.

 

“No, Reg,” Barty said, softly. “No he hasn’t- but he’s Skeeter enough to know how to manipulate you. I just don’t want you to wind up in the same position you did last-time. A fractured rib and a dislocated jaw- and he _still_ has the gall to sleep with you, even when you proposition it? No. He doesn’t care about you, Reg. He never has. _Please_ don’t do this again! You’re finally in a happy point of your life- you have to _promise_ me you’re not going to ever see him again.”

 

“I’ll~”

 

“ _Reg_.”

 

“Fine. I promise.”

 

“Good. Now, I do believe that you’ve met Evan before.”

 

“Hey,” Regulus nodded shyly. “Sorry for all the drama.”

 

“Don’t sweat it,” damn this kid was pathetic.

 

“Now for the game- Switzerland vs Costa Rica- who shall win?”

 

“Switzerland,” Regulus snorted. “They’re way better.”

 

“I'm putting my money on Costa Rica,” Evan smirked. “This’ll probably be where they play their best seeing as they _obviously_ don’t want to go home with nothing.”

 

And in the end, it was a tie.


	11. Chapter 11

Week one of Regulus avoiding Thomas had been going great, except for the fact that the boy knew where he lived and was most _definitely_ not above showing up at his apartment. Oh great- he’d gotten his stalker back!

 

Regulus sighed. He doubted that Ladybug ever had to put up with this bullshit.

 

.

 

Remus smiled, taking the paint out. He was doing an art course over the holidays and he was really starting to enjoy it. Or, rather, he was starting to enjoy _her_.

 

“Nice choice of colors- I _love_ that red and blue hue you're working with,” she smiled.

 

 _Tonks! Dora Tonks!_ Remus was in heaven. She was so sweet and kind and wonderful… OK, she was to him at least, but to be fair the majority of people in the class were total arses. Dora shouldn’t be faulted for standing up for herself.

 

Apparently she went to UCL- just like him! She was studying criminology and dreamed of working as a detective- though she knew that she would have to work her way up. One of her lecturers, Professor Moody (Or Al, as she called him) certainly believed that she had the potential, and had taken her under his wing. Her main motivation in life was helping people.

 

He felt the Chameleon Miraculous in his pocket weigh heavy. _This_ was the kind of person that he could trust with it- and he wasn’t being _totally_ irresponsible, after all, he’d known her all of a week and she’d never once shown any sign of being two-faced.

 

He’d give it to her tomorrow, he thought, tomorrow… night?

 

.

 

“Hey, Evan,” Barty greeted his cousin happily the next morning.

 

“Hey, BCJ,” Evan grinned back.

 

“Again- sorry about the whole thing yesterday!”

 

“It’s OK, your friend was dating a _Skeeter_ , you don’t just have a right to be worried, you have a **_duty_** to be worried!”

 

“Exactly!”

 

“So, how long do you think it’ll take for him to break his promise?”

 

“What?”

 

“I’m just saying,” Evan shrugged. “If a guy kept walking over, say, _you_ , but you kept letting him into your life anyways, do you _really_ think that one measly self-letter and a few mementos are going to stop him from bedding the guy?”

 

“Regulus would _never_ break a promise to me,” Barty frowned. “We’ve been friends our whole lives.”

 

“Oh, really? Call him now and ask him, then. Ask him if he’s even _thought_ of sleeping with Skeeter.”

 

“ _Fine_!”

 

Barty whipped out his cellphone and called Regulus.

 

No answer.

 

.

 

Regulus had spent the whole day indoors playing games on his phone, ignoring calls from Thomas and completely ignoring him that one time he showed up at the apartment and banged on the door for an hour and half.

 

Then his battery was low, so he put his phone on charge and decided to go out on a stroll while he waited for it to get back up to at _least_ 60%. What could he say, he was an expert procrastinator, and he did _not_ want to do his homework.

 

He still remembered the days when he was the world’s most stressed out teen. Obsessed with getting good grades and being the perfect son and never, ever, _ever_ doing anything that might be ~~(fun)~~ risky, so as not to upset his parents who were already pretty upset by Sirius. And then Plagg came along, and taught him that being ‘perfect’ in every situation wasn’t actually being ‘perfect’ in life and that it was OK to take breaks and not be the best if it meant working yourself to death.

 

Too bad he missed Barty’s call… and Thomas’s _very_ angry voicemail…


	12. Chapter 12

Voldemort smiled at the two scenes in front of him maliciously. Ah, the Blacks, they _did_ always manage to piss _someone_ off- and this time, the young heir seemed to have outdone himself. He hadn’t just pissed _one_ person off, no- he’d pissed _two_ people off.

 

He held out his two hands and closed his eyes, summoning the two butterflies to him.

 

“Come, my precious Akumas… go forth and fester the anger within them…” he watched them fly away. “Fidel, Bedbug, I am Voldemort. I can help you get your revenge, all that I ask for in return are Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculouses.”

 

“Yes, Hawkmoth,” both boys uttered.

 

From his spot next to Barty, Evan smirked. Everything was going to plan.

 

.

 

Regulus smiled as he ran up the steps to his apartment, only to find that the door was open. That was… that was _odd_ \- Sirius was an absolute _nut_ about safety- oh no!

 

He felt his breath catch as he stepped in and saw… saw Bleu?

 

“Wha~?” he froze.

 

“Regulus, right?” the man smirked. The door slammed shut behind him, and he was pinned to the wall by a heavy, oddly familiar force. He looked down, white gloves.

 

“Fidel! Please,” Bleu smirked. “Gentle… wouldn’t want to hurt your friend.”

 

“No,” he heard the man’s voice growl. “No I wouldn’t.”

 

“What’s going on?” Regulus barked out.

 

Bleu smirked, getting up off of the couch, walking over to them- still not having answered the question. He slid his leg under Regulus, causing him to fall to the ground.

 

He growled, infuriated as Bleu sank down to the ground, next to him, and placed an almost gentle hand on his face. If he didn’t know better, he would’ve thought that Bleu actually cared.

 

“Well, mon cher, we’re out on a bit of a pest-hunt. See, we’re going to use you as bait to trick Chat Noir and Ladybug to us so that we can steal their Miraculouses.”

 

“What makes you think _you’ll_ win?” Regulus gritted out.

 

Slap. Ow, Bleu’s rings hurt.

 

“We’ll win because we have a secret weapon,” he smirked, whistling.

 

From the shadows walked a man with an added tan and body paint dressed as… dressed as a Cherub? A Cupid?

 

“This is Bedbug,” Bleu smirked.

 

“Reg,” Bedbug breathed… who was he? “Babe,” he helped Regulus to his feet before pressing him against the wall (though significantly more gently) and sealing their mouths together.

 

He heard Fidel growl as the two separated. _Thomas_ , he thought, his heart doing flips as he connected the dots- _nobody_ kissed like Thomas, it was probably one of the reasons that he kept going back.

 

And judging by the growl that Fidel let out, he could guess who was wearing the mask there, as well…

 

“Barty? Thomas?” he asked.

 

Fidel growled. “It’s not Barty- Reg, it’s _Fidel_ , as in the protector of _fidelity_ , something you need to work on.”

 

“Tell me about it- little bitch wouldn’t let me in all day,” Bedbug- er, _Thomas_ growled. “Probably fucking someone else.”

 

Yup. They were _definitely_ staying broken up.

 

“Wait,” Barty froze. “You _didn’t_ see him- then why didn’t you pick up your phone!”

 

“I went on a walk and left it to charge,” Regulus gasped from where he was pinned to the wall by Thomas’s strong arms in a vice-like grip on his shoulders.

 

“Yeah, _sure_ ,” Thomas growled. “A ‘walk’. Who'd you bang? Dolohov? Mulciber? Snape? Avery? All of them at once? You smell awfully fresh- why did you just have a shower?” Thomas’s grip tightened on Regulus’s shoulders.

 

“Thoma-”

 

“If I wanted to fuck you right now would I even need to prep you or would you already be wide open?”

 

Suddenly the unbearable pressure of Thomas’s fingers was gone and Thomas was on the floor wrestling with Barty.

 

“Barty- no!” he called out to his friend, not wanting him to get hurt on his behalf.

 

“Fidel- off!” Bleu called right before Thomas picked Barty up and threw him through the wall into Sirius’s bedroom.

 

Regulus winced. _Ouch_. On the Brightside, akumatized victims never really seemed to suffer from any residual effects of their akumatization.

 

Bleu growled, walking over to Regulus and roughly lifting him up. “Come on,” he barked, “I have to keep your pathetic ass safe from those two idiots.”

 

He marched Regulus out of the apartment. Roughly, they descended a flight of stairs, Bleu’s hand firm behind Regulus’s back.

 

“What do those two see in you?” he mused aloud as they started walking towards what Regulus knew in his heart of hearts was the Big Ben.

 

Regulus didn’t respond, too afraid of saying the wrong thing.

 

Bleu shoved him harder. “I asked you a question.” He growled.

 

“I-I have no idea,” Regulus stuttered.

 

The further they got from the apartment, the less optimistic Regulus felt about his odds. Ladybug’s Lucky Charm could work miracles, but even he knew that it couldn’t bring a person back to life.

 

“I mean, you're not _ugly_ , but you're certainly not much of a prize either. I get that your family is wealthy, but they're from pretty wealthy families as well.”

 

“I- Barty’s my friend,” Regulus stammered, knowing that he shouldn’t be giving Bleu this. “Barty’s my friend. Uh, um, Thomas I have a history with.”

 

“Friends don’t generally let themselves get thrown through walls to protect their friends…”

 

“ _Best_ -friend, we’ve known each other since we were six. And he _really_ hates Thomas,” Regulus added as an afterthought.

 

“Why would you date someone your best-friend hates?”

 

“It’s complicated.”

 

“Yeah, looked real complicated when he was accusing you of being a slut...”

 

“He was just angry.”

 

“That didn’t give him the right.”

 

.

 

Sirius gaped as he stared at the news. That weird-ass Peacock-dude had his _baby brother_.

 

“Grimm, fangs _out_!”

 

Sirius raced to where he had a feeling that the fight would inevitably take place. The Eiffel Tower.

 

He sent a quick message to the group-chat on his communicator.

 

.

 

Remus leapt across buildings doing his best not to be slowed down by anything.

 

Regulus. Little Regulus. Sirius’s weird, previously-obnoxious, semi-adorable little brother was in danger.

 

What was worse- he couldn’t get through to Chat Noir. Where _was_ he!?

 

.

 

Evan growled as Fidel and Bedbug finally showed up.

 

“Where were you two?”

 

“Sorry,” though neither of them answered his question.

 

Bedbug took a few steps towards him and Regulus and Evan found himself pressing the smaller boy into him.

 

Nevertheless Bedbug managed to grab onto Regulus, and gave him a hickey. Regulus felt weak, dazed almost. He stumbled a little, but Bedbug kept him upright.

 

“Tommy,” he rarely ever used that nickname- the last time he’d used it commonly they’d been dating. “Tommy, what did you do to me?”

 

“Shhh, Sweetheart,” classic Thomas, never answering his questions. “It’s for the best.”

 

Evan frowned, uncomfortable. Did Voldemort give Thomas Skeeter the power to date-rape people? Was he about to _witness_ rape?

 

He took out his communicator and sent a message to Bellatrix.

 

**MB: Hey, so I’m using your cousin here as planned.**

**ST: And?**

**MB: Uhhh… you’re going to want to be here. I think Skeeter may try something. He’s already using some weird bite-thing to make him drowsy.**

**MB: And frankly, I wouldn’t put it above the Skeeters to think themselves to be above consent.**

**MB: Especially when they can blame it on the akumatization.**

**ST: On my way. I’ll pick up Rab and Rod.**

**MB: K.**

Evan grabbed Regulus bridal style from where Thomas was holding him, ignoring the glare that was shot his way by both Thomas… and Barty? (shouldn’t Barty be grateful that Evan was removing his best-friend from that creep? Then again, Barty didn’t know that it was him, he was equally likely to think that Evan was the dangerous creep).

 

“Come on, we need to get to the top of the tower,” Evan called back, before jumping up. onto a ledge and slinging Regulus carefully across his shoulder so that he could use his hands to scale the building.

 

As he neared the top, he smirked down below. A flash of red- Ladybug. The fight had just begun.

 

He threw Regulus over the top and hoisted himself up. Fidel and- fuck it. Barty and Thomas joined him up there shortly.

 

“Bedbug,” he barked out, “try and bite Ladybug. Fidel, cause as much confusion as you possibly can- get Chat Noir to blurt out his secrets.”

 

“Oh _Ladybug_!” Thomas smirked.

 

“Where is he?” Barty frowned, turning back to Evan. Evan frowned. Where _was_ Noir? Urgh! He better not be travelling or something- he would fucking _kill_ Noir if he were travelling. He’d been _this close_ to capturing Noir- _this close_ to unveiling the man behind the mask.

 

_~~This close to meeting whomever it was that made his world spin and his heart ache.~~ _

__

“I have no clue. While you’re waiting, why don’t you go off and cause mayhem between the others- use your powers to make them be completely honest with one another or something.”

 

“Aye,” Barty disappeared.

 

Evan found himself contemplating the young man lying in a heap beside him. In an odd way, Evan was actually _jealous_ of Thomas. At least Skeeter had the object of his affections where he wanted him (even if how he wanted him was just fucking creepy in Evan’s opinion). Evan didn’t just not know _where_ Chat Noir was, he didn’t even know _who_ Chat Noir was.

 

He leaned down and stroked his cousin’s best-friend’s cheek, frowning. Where Thomas had bitten was now an inflamed red, and was growing darker and darker by the minute.

 

Evan had a bad feeling about this.

 

.

 

Remus gasped as Bedbug jumped at him. He dodged the raging lunatic, and went back to focusing on his primary task, rescuing his best-friend’s little brother from the other two raging lunatics.

 

He looked to his left. Wow. Padfoot was _really_ dedicated to getting Regulus back… that was how you knew that you had a good superhero in the making.

 

.

 

Sirius growled. Regulus was _knocked out_! What kind of sickos did that?

 

“Bleu,” he spat. “Unhand the civilian, he means nothing to you.”

 

“Oh ho, one mission with them and you’re _already_ acting like you’re some big-name,” Bleu rolled his eyes.

 

Sirius lunged, unhinging his jaw slightly so that he could get in a good bite, but unfortunately he missed. Sadly though, Bleu’s shot of wind at him didn’t.

 

Sirius fell flat onto his back.

 

“Heel, bitch,” Bleu smirked.

 

“Urgh!” Sirius groaned.

 

He saw three shapes descend onto the ledge. He vaguely recognized them from past media coverage and sightings- Spinerette, Stick and Jaws.

 

“Stick!” Bleu commanded, “Take the charge somewhere safer, we need him to lure in Ladybug and Chat Noir- keep him _safe_!”

 

“Aye!” Sirius couldn’t see the man’s face, but he did _not_ like his over-eager tone of voice.

 

Sirius tried to force himself up to stand, but was swiftly brought down yet again by Bleu’s wind.

 

“Now then, Mutt. I know that _cats_ always land on their feet… let’s see if the same is true for dogs.”

 

Sirius’s eyes widened as an especially hard gust of wind rolled him over and off the top of the Big Ben.

 

His hands grasped blindly in the air for anything, _anything_ that he could hold onto- but alas, no luck.

 

That was when he felt an arm around his waist and within the blink of an eye he was safely on a ledge.

 

“Woah!” Ladybug grinned, “Still finding your feet there, eh?”

 

“Yeah, haha, thanks!” he blushed, slightly embarrassed. “That-that Honey Badger- _Stick_! He’s got m- he’s got the guy!”

 

“Regulus Black,” Ladybug frowned. “By any chance did you hear where they were taking him?”

 

“No- just ‘somewhere safe,’” Sirius nearly smacked himself as Ladybug turned to leave. He grabbed the boy’s wrist. “Wait- they… they don’t want Regulus, they want _you_ \- you and Chat Noir, I mean.”

 

Ladybug cursed. “Of course! Urgh- and I can’t get a hold of Chat at all!” Sirius tried his best to ignore the way that Ladybug kept referring to Chat Noir as ‘ _Chat_ ,’ as though they were close to one another.

 

“Where’re Lionne and Prongs?”

 

“I-I don’t know,” Ladybug frowned. “The last I saw them they were fighting Fidel and Bedbug.”

 

“Bedbug?”

 

“Yeah- from what I've gathered through his victims, he has some sort of lust-bite, turns the victim into a horny mess.”

 

“Oh gods- _no_!”

 

“Sadly, yes. When I find out who that motherfucker is behind the mask, screw patience and understanding, I’m going to punch them in the fucking face.”

 

Sirius whistled. “Didn’t know you swore so much.”

 

“You have a fucking problem with it?” But Ladybug’s smile let Sirius know that the ‘threat’ was meant as a joke.

 

“No, sir.”

 

“Good- now come on, we have a teen to find.”

 

.

 

Regulus groaned, stirring. He felt weird.

 

He opened his eyes and saw… the underside of a chin? He was being carried, wasn’t he? He let out a large gasp, eyes widening, as he realized that he recognized the fabric of the suit from a few too many close-encounters- he was being carried by _Stick_.

 

He felt himself being lain down. “Sshh,” definitely Stick. “Sshh, you're safe here.”

 

“Wha~?” Regulus groaned. He felt funny.

 

“Sshh, don’t worry. Don’t worry.”

 

“I- I don’t feel good,” Regulus slurred. “So… so _hot_?”

 

“Yeah,” Stick chuckled. “Yeah- I saw the after effects of Bedbug’s bite.” At Regulus’s panicked look, he quickly added. “Relax- unlike Skeeter, consent actually means something to me.”

 

“Urgh!” Regulus moaned, writhing a little on the floor. “’m sorry, ’m so sorry.”

 

“For what?” Stick frowned.

 

“’s my fault. ’s _all_ my fault,” he hated the way his voice hitched, the way he bared his throat.

 

“No,” Stick soothed. “No, it’s not. You’re incredibly attractive, I can totally understand why those two boys are fighting over you.”

 

Regulus wanted to kindly respond that his and Barty’s relationship was not that of a romantic nature, but his mind was becoming blurrier and blurrier by the second.

 

“Nggghhh,” he groaned into the floor.

 

“You stay here,” Stick soothed. “I’ll go out and keep lookout.”

 

“No!” Regulus was shocked at the level of desperateness his tone carried. “No, please don’t leave me alone here!”

 

“If I stay, you’ll get hornier and hornier and I may not be able to fight you off. Trust me, you don’t want me… not like this.”

 

Regulus could do little more than groan in response.

 

.

 

Sirius ran alongside Ladybug across the rooftops of London. One of his powers- thank the heavens- was the ability to track someone by scent, and he _obviously_ knew his baby brother’s scent.

 

He found himself growing more and more worried, however, as to Lionne and Prongs’s whereabouts.

 

.

 

“Urgh! I can _not_ believe that we let them get us!” Lily growled.

 

“One time, when I was three, I stole my father’s toupee and glued it to my butt!” Prongs blushed. “A-and~”

 

“Can it! We don’t need any more identifying information on each other!” Lily growled.

 

“May I be of some assistance?”

 

Lily and Prongs jumped. Who… who had said that?

 

Suddenly, the pole beside them transformed into a girl. She had a green, scaly jumpsuit with purple accents and bubblegum pink hair.

 

“Who are you!?” Lily whispered, scared out of her mind.

 

“I am Chamie-Leon,” the girl smirked, proud.

 

“Chameleon?” Prongs frowned.

 

The girl visibly deflated. “It’s- _Chamie_ \- ugh! You know what, forget it! I’ll just pick a new name! Erm, how about Aroura?”

 

“Eurgh!” Prongs made a face.

 

“Okay, okay. How about- _The Auror_.”

 

“Auror… as in?”

 

“You know what, it’s my name, goddammit!” Lily swore the girl blushed. “Anyways, I’m one of you guys, I guess. Ladybug told me to come here and check up on you guys- any idea where he went?”

 

“Uh, he went across that building,” Lily pointed. “They didn’t leave too long ago though, I’m sure if you hurry, you can find them.”

 

“No need,” the girl smirked, running to touch a nearby motorbike and transforming into one herself, before whizzing off.

 

“That girl’s _insane_ ,” but Prongs was smiling so Lily knew that he meant it in a good way.

 

.

 

“In there!” Padfoot pointed at an old, abandoned warehouse.

 

“Hang on,” Remus said, holding Padfoot back. “We’re waiting for someone.”

 

“There's no time!” Remus frowned. Why was Padfoot so panicky?

 

“Dude- trust me! The only way that we can get young Black out of there safely is with our third party member.”

 

“What if he _hurts_ him?” Remus had _never_ heard someone sound so broken. His impression of Padfoot had been that he was rather easy-going- but _this_ , this was anything but.

 

“He won’t- you said the instruction was to keep him safe. Stick wouldn’t risk pissing Bleu _or_ Spinerette off,” Remus soothed.

 

“But Bedbug _bit him_! He’s about to be overcome by lust- what if- what if Stick _rapes_ him!?”

 

“He won’t. Death Eaters… they’re evil, but rapists are a whole other story.”

 

Before the argument could continue, a girl leapt upwards at an alarming rate before landing in a crouch besides the two boys. She had on a green, scaly jumpsuit with purple accents and a silver, water-like cloak attached to her back, and bubblegum pink hair. _Tonks_!

 

“Who-who are you?” Padfoot breathed.

 

“I am Chammie- urgh! You know what, forget it. I’m _the Auror_ , OK! Deal with it.”

 

“Dealt with,” Remus flashed her a charming smile before mentally beating himself with a lamppost. Regulus was in _danger_ and he was out here flirting with _Tonks_! “OK, now focus. They have a hostage in there, Regulus Black, and since I have _no idea_ where the _fucking hell_ Chat Noir is, we’re going to have to do this by ourselves. T- er, _Auror_ , I need you to disguise yourself as one of the Death Eaters- I have some photos of them on my phone, can you work with a photo?”

 

“I can try,” she nodded, taking a gloved hand and pressing it to the picture of Spinerette before transforming into the girl in the photo. “OK, but I think that you two should take this,” she tossed her cape. “It’s an invisibility cloak. It’ll let you get in unnoticed.”

 

“Perfect. We get in close and then we attack- Padfoot, I need you to take Regulus out of the fire zone. Then I think that Auror and I will hunt down Fidel and Bedbug.”

 

“Aye.”

 

.

 

Regulus couldn’t really feel much at the moment. He had a feeling that to some extent, Plagg was protecting him from the full effects of Thomas’s bite.

 

All that he knew was that one minute he was trying to get into Stick’s pants (though, in his defense, he was fighting the urge as best he could) and the next moment he was being carried away by Dog-er, _Padfoot_.

 

He had no idea why, but being held by Padfoot seemed to lessen his desire to be shagged. Perhaps because their Miraculouses were working together to abate the spell? Perhaps Thomas’s curse only worked when around those in Thomas’s allegiance? Perhaps the spell was just wearing off? He didn’t give a fuck, he could think again and that was all that mattered.

 

“Padfoot- where’s Ladybug! He needs to clear the Akuma!”

 

“Ssh, ssh, it’s OK, you’re OK, they're going for Fidel and Bedbug now. Don’t worry.”

 

He hated that the hero wouldn’t listen to him- it brought back angry memories of his youth, when _nobody_ ever listened to him because he lacked authoritativeness.

 

Thankfully, he had since learned methods of getting his way by skirting around issues and manipulating others.

 

“Ngghhh!” he fake moaned. “Mmmm, nggghhhh. _Please_ , Stick wouldn’t sleep with me- I-I _need_ your~”

 

Thankfully, he didn’t have to finish that sentence. Even through the mask he could see Padfoot’s blush and horrified expression.

 

“Um, i-I think, er, why don’t I take you back to your apartment? Yeah… yeah, I’ll just, um, er, I think that I’ll just, er, you know, um, lock you, uh, in your room or, uhm, something, er…”

 

Regulus smiled in delight, _success_ , but his face fell instantaneously. _Sirius_ , he thought, he had no desire to drag the fight to him.

 

“My-my brother!”

 

“Erm, uh, I-I’ll keep him safe as well.”

 

Regulus highly doubted that, but he figured that it didn’t matter much. As soon as Padfoot had him locked up in his room he’d just transform and sneak out the back window.

 

.

 

Sirius frowned. He’d called out to Regulus twice in the past five fucking minutes and he hadn’t hear a goddamned _peep_ in response. Where was he?

 

.

 

Remus’s jaw dropped. “Chat! Where the bloody _fuck_ have you been!?”

 

“I’m sorry, I was-er, taking care of, uhm, _business_ , outside of town.”

 

“Sure you weren’t too busy shagging your way through London’s streets?” Dora snorted.

 

“Who’s that?” Chat frowned.

 

“This- us, this it The Auror. She’s the last of our new crew.”

 

“Well, uh, pleasure to meet you?” he could’ve smacked the boy.

 

“Same.”

 

“Um, guys! We have two akumas to find!”

 

“Too bad we found you first, then.”

 

.

 

Regulus’s heart dropped. He hated that he was responsible for the two men whom he saw standing in front of him, ‘bug and the Auror. He hated that he’d been the reason they- along with Sirius- had lost so much control of their emotions that they had fallen prey to Voldemort. People whom he _loved_ had fallen because of _him_.

 

He spared a glance at ‘Bug and Auror. They were about to get hurt in a fight because he sucked at handling relationships. He just hoped that if they had anyway of knowing, they would have forgiven him.

 

Fidel- er, _Barty_ , charged at him. “Let’s see what Chat Noir has to say- maybe a secret or two he wants to share with Ladybug, hmm?”

 

“Barty, snap out of it,” Regulus pleaded. “This isn’t you.”

 

“How would you know _anything_ about me?” Fidel pointed his cellphone at him. That must’ve been where the Akuma was.

 

“’Bug- his _phone_! It’s in his phone!” he called out, dodging the bright burst of light said phone emitted.

 

He extended his pole, knocking his best-friend off of the rooftop, and Ladybug used his yoyo to capture the phone. He jumped down on the phone, releasing the butterfly and Ladybug cleansed it- ridding London of the damage caused by it. Now to deal with Thomas.

 

Thomas was currently fighting against the Auror, who was doing her best to fight him off but was mainly on the defensive by that point.

 

Ladybug used his yoyo to knock him down, but Regulus had no clue where the Akuma was. Thomas had bitten him, yet, but he _highly_ doubted that it was the boy’s teeth. The wings? Potentially.

 

“What are you waiting for!?” Ladybug screamed, doing his best to keep Bedbug from breaking free of the yoyo’s string.

 

“I-I don’t know where the Akuma is!”

 

Regulus scanned and scanned and- and… was that-was that the watch he’d bought Thomas for their first anniversary.

 

“ _Cataclysm_!” he called out, bounding over to the boy and picking up his right arm.

 

“No- _urgh_ , my boyfriend got me this! _Let go of me!_ ”

 

“He’s not your boyfriend anymore- hasn’t been for a long time,” Regulus sighed, breaking the watch.

 

Sure enough, a black-green butterfly fluttered out. Ladybug cleansed it. It was all _over_! Finally!

 

And then, Regulus was knocked back. Fuck! He forgot about the Death Eaters!

 

“Well, well, well,” Bleu smirked. “If it isn’t Chat Noir. And here I was, worried that you wouldn’t make it to our little party.”

 

Regulus was freaking out. He’d just used his cataclysm, his _special power_ , within minutes Plagg would give out.

 

“Uh uh,” Bleu smirked, sensing his agitation. “Ssh, little one. I _know_ you just used your cataclysm, I _know_ you'll de-transform soon. This is how I _finally_ get to see your face.”

 

“Just rip the ring off,” Regulus grit out. “If you're so desperate, then.”

 

“Hmmm, I would. But where’d the fun be in that?”

 

Suddenly, Bleu was off of him. “Run!” he heard Ladybug call out. “Run, Chat!” he didn’t have to be told thrice.

 

“Pf! After him!” he heard Bleu command, his head in the gravel.

 

Regulus ran and ran and ran and ran. He’d never fled a scene so quickly in his life. He quickly turned the corner and detransformed. He leaned against the wall of the street corner and sighed a breath of relief, but that relief was short-lived. They weren’t _just_ looking for Chat Noir- they were _also_ looking for him. Regulus Black. He quickly popped into the first store he saw and bought a hat, shades, makeup and a scarf, before popping back out. He used the makeup to give himself a monobrow and orange lips, plus _really_ red cheeks. He also wrapped the scarf around his neck all the way up from his shoulders to his chin.

 

He strode across the streets of London, looking for a store that sold camembert.

 

.

 

Sirius was freaking out. Regulus was _nowhere_ in his room! Where the _fuck_ had his little brother gone!? He didn’t even know if the spell had worn off or not! What if- what if Bleu or Stick or one of the other Death Eaters had broken in! Had he accidentally left the window to Regulus’s room open!?

 

Apparently so, given that it was open when he broke in there.

 

Sirius ran out into London’s streets, and saw Ladybug, The Auror, Lionne and James- er, ‘Prongs’ fighting Bleu, Spinerette, Stick and Jaws. He ran up behind Jaws (who was battling James) and wrapped his arm around his neck, dragging him down to the ground.

 

“ _Find Chat Noir!_ ” Bleu growled, knocking Ladybug to the ground. “ ** _Find him_**!!”

 

Sirius’s eyes widened. Chat Noir _was here_?? Where had he been when his baby brother had been _captured_!? Where had he been when that _pervert_ was with his (unwillingly) horny little brother?

 

Eurgh, thinking of Regulus being horny was weird. Almost as weird as when he was _holding_ his horny baby brother.

 

“Bleu- calm down,” Spinerette ordered. “We couldn’t find him when he escaped, he’s most likely already detransformed. We should retreat.”

 

Bleu looked conflicted. “Fine,” he bellowed. “Ta, Ladybug, send my regards to your Feline Friend.”


	13. Chapter 13

“Where were you?” Sirius growled.

 

“What do you mean?” Regulus frowned.

 

“ _Last night_!” Sirius froze, shit he needed to be careful with where he went on this or Regulus would _know_. “Last night! I came to the apartment looking for you!”

 

“Oh… uh,” think, Regulus, think. “Uhm, er, P-Padfoot was with me. He, er, he kept me safe.”

 

That was a fucking _lie_ , and Sirius knew it. He frowned. What reason did Regulus have to lie to him? _What had he been doing_!?

 

“OK. Good to know that you were safe,” he said with a forced smile. He’d be sure to find out what ‘safe’ really meant shortly.

 

.

 

“Mate, I’m telling you _let it go_!”

 

“I can’t, James! He fucking said that _Padfoot_ was with him- _no I fucking wasn’t_!”

 

“Well, he was hit by that spell, right? Maybe he just blacked out after it or something.”

 

“No! He seemed _way_ too sure of where he’d been.”

 

“So what do you think, then? Barty and Thomas were _both_ accounted for.”

 

“A) Until _when_ , and B) _what if he wasn’t with either of them_?”

 

“Sirius, this is preposterous. Why the _hell_ would your brother, the key victim that night, stage some elaborate plot to sneak out from under your nose. What happened to ‘full disclosure’?”

 

“He’s been deceitful in the past, _what the hell are you implying by ‘full disclosure’?”_

 

“Well, you're not exactly being entirely honest with him either.”

 

“Hey, you know what? If my brother ever gets a Miraculous and doesn’t tell me, _fine_ , I get it. You're not _supposed_ to tell anyone about it! I’d understand!”

 

“Look- maybe he was in shock or something? Whatever did or didn’t happen last night is not worth pursuing, Sirius. Step. Down.”

 

.

 

**Regulus: Hey, Barty? You okay.**

**Barty: Yeah, I’m fine.**

**Regulus: You sure?**

**Barty: I’m positive.**

**Regulus: That’s good. Sorry for making you mad.**

**Barty: It’s OK, wasn’t your fault. Sorry for attacking you.**

**Regulus: Well, _you_ didn’t attack me. Everyone _else_ did, you actually defended me.**

**Barty: I did?**

**Regulus: Fuck yeah!**

**Barty: That’s good.**

**Barty: Wanna come over?**

**Regulus: Sure.**

 

.

 

Regulus walked into Barty’s apartment with the spare key he had. Yes, they _did_ have spare keys to each other’s homes. _Yes,_ it did bother Sirius when Barty ‘strode into their apartment like he owned the place.’

 

“Hey, Barty!” he greeted.

 

“Reg, come along. Evan’s just gone out to meet up with some old friends, so we’ve got the whole place to ourselves.”

 

They sat themselves on Barty’s large leather couch.

 

“Hey, Barty. I’m sorry for not answering your call yesterday, but it wasn’t because I was with Thomas or anything- I just needed to let it charge because I’d been playing games on it all day.”

 

“I know, that much I remember… now when you say I attacked _everyone else_ , please tell me I got in a few good shots at Skeeter?”

 

Regulus chuckled. “You did.”

 

“ _Yes_!”

 

“Though he _did_ throw you through a wall.”

 

“Awww… which wall?”

 

“Sirius’s bedroom.”

 

“ _Yes!_ Wait, urgh, Ladybug’s miraculous probably fixed it, never mind.”

 

“You know, I think that it’s cute that you two hate each other.”

 

“Really? Even when most of our fights are over who gets to spend more time with you?”

 

Regulus laughed. “You two never fight over that! You just think he’s really controlling~”

 

“But he _is_ ~”

 

“And he thinks that you're reckless, irresponsible and bad for me.”

 

Barty contemplated. “Well, he’s not _completely_ wrong, but I wouldn’t exactly say I'm _bad_ for you- in fact, as the older of us, I’d say that it were you leading the two of us down a dark and nefarious road.”

 

“Barty… I’m four months older than you.”

 

“Four months too many! For months on this planet spent learning witchcraft and sorcery so that you could ensnare me in your little magic web when I came out- well you’ll never take me alive, Regulus Black. _Never_.”

 

“Haha- can you please get your foot away from my face?”

 

.

 

Evan smiled at the arrival of his best-friend whom Barty had _graciously_ allowed to crash at his place in the spare bedroom. Rabastan Lestrange.

 

Some people may think it odd that his best-friend was four fucking years older than he was, but not Evan, no. He’d never really gotten on all that well with his age mates (save for Avery, Snape, Mulciber, Nott and Flint, of course) but Evan had known Rabastan far longer than any of them. Rabastan was even his cousin-in-law now! (Technically, he supposed. Bella was his father’s uncle’s granddaughter, and she was married to Rodolphus(ish? He supposed. It was an open marriage, though he himself didn’t really understand the concept all that well.)

 

“Hey! You made it!” Evan grinned.

 

“Of course! Hey, are you sure that it’s OK that I’m crashing at you cousin’s place?”

 

“Yeah, he said it was fine- _wait_! I almost forgot- Barty’s got his friend over a lot, Regulus Black. I think he’s there right now. You know him, I think. Bella’s other cousin.”

 

“Yeah, of course. He was at the wedding. I _also_ carried him to safety last night, remember?”

 

“Oh yeah. So?”

 

“So what?”

 

“So, what’d you think?”

 

“What was there to think?” Rabastan frowned. “Oh come on, dude. He was under a spell, I wasn’t going to _judge_ him! And the last time I saw him he was eight- no, I do _not_ have an opinion on him!”

 

“Well, you’re about to meet cousin-dearest again.”

 

“He’s _not_ my cousin- we’re not related.”

 

“OK…”

 

“… I hate the way that you said that…”

 

.

 

“ _Goooooaaaaalllll_!” Regulus and Barty screamed at the TV just as Evan and Rabastan walked in.

 

“Have you two been inside _all day_?” Evan frowned.

 

“We were playing Monopoly, then we made pizza, and now we’re watching the game- suck it!” Barty said, attention back on the screen.

 

“Oh yeah- who’s playing tonight again?” Rabastan asked.

 

“France vs Peru!” Barty grinned. “France is winning!”

 

“Oh, hey! That’s cool! Whoo!” Rabastan smirked in Evan’s direction. “Go team Evan!”

 

“Haha!” Evan rolled his eyes. “That’s right. Make a joke, why don’t you?”

 

“What’s funny about what he said?” Barty frowned.

 

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? I've got to support Britain and France because I’m a citizen of both countries, but there’s no way that either of them could win this thing.”

 

“That’s bull! They’ve both got great teams!”

 

“Yeah- maybe to get the quarter-finals or something, but neither of them are winning~”

 

“I’ll take that bet,” Regulus snorted.

 

Evan glared at the boy. “How much?”

 

“Fifty quid,” Barty chanted, “Fifty quid, fifty quid~”

 

“Fifty quid,” Rabastan joined in, “Fifty quid.”

 

 

“Fine,” both Evan and Regulus snapped at the same time, resulting in them both blushing.

 

Barty smiled at Rabastan- he may barely know the guy, but he always somehow managed to make him smile. Trust Evan to pick good friends.

 

“Well, it’s settled then. _If_ either France or England win, I’ll give you fifty quid, when both are eliminated, you're paying _me_.”

 

“Deal.”

 

.

 

Barty supposed that it was a good thing that France had won their match. He had no intention of telling Regulus yet, but he was _totally_ going to make Regulus take him out to dinner when he won his bet (Barty _did_ help set the amount, after all). He’d make Evan do it, but Rabastan already had dibs.

 

Though, in all honesty, from the looks Rabastan kept sending Regulus’s way through the game, he had a feeling they’d be switching places _very_ soon.

 

In all honesty, Barty really hoped that the two would get together, because Rabastan was _way_ better for Reg than Skeeter. _Way, **way**_ better.

 

Plus (and yes, Barty conceded, it _was_ a selfish reason) Barty liked Rabastan’s company- it’d be fun to have him dating Reg. Now, all he had to do was get them together, which wouldn’t be hard to do because he and Severus and Regulus had all arranged to go out the next night to Hog’s Head, and Evan and Rabastan wanted to come along. Maybe he could manipulate the situation? (And yes, he did hear the way he thought, and _yes_ he knew that it was wrong.) It was a club, after all, and while Regulus constantly boasted to his brother that he followed the law, even _Barty_ knew that Regulus drank. Loud noise, room full of tipsy people… how hard could it possibly be?

 

.

 

“You-you’re actually OK with this?” Regulus frowned.

 

“Yeah,” Sirius shrugged. “Look, honestly, I’m just happy that you told me this time. Go and have fun- and remember, don’t drink _anything_ unless a) you paid for it, and b) you saw it being opened and have been with it the entire time. I don’t care if your drink is full, if you’ve left it unattended for even a moment it’s _dead_ to you.”

 

“It’s a drink, all drinks are ‘dead’.”

 

“ _Regulus_ ~”

“Relax,” Regulus smiled, “I know what you mean,” he leaned in to hug Sirius. “And thank you.”

 

.

 

“Soooo, your version of ‘full disclosure’ involves spying on your brother after allowing him to go to out with his friends?” Remus frowned.

 

“Can it, Rem. Besides, Marlene agreed to come so I can make it look like a date.”

 

“Then why’d you bring _me_!?”

 

“Oh, she’s bringing a friend with her, and I didn’t want the friend to feel lonely. She’s new to the city, moved here recently, just joined the university.”

 

Remus rolled his eyes. He spotted Marlene by the entrance with… _Dora_!?

 

“How the _fuck_ does McKinnon know _Tonks_!?” Remus hissed, his ears burning.

 

“Wha- oh, wait, who’s _Tonks_?”

 

“The girl with McKinnon,” Remus hissed. “Oh my gods, she’s in my _art class_!”

 

“Art class?”

 

“Oh shut up!”

 

“Remus,” Tonks smiled. “Hi!”

 

“Dora, long time no see.”

 

“Yeah, afraid I can’t make art class anymore. My dad’s in hospital and I’ve been looking after him,” oh wow, he hadn’t meant to sound so accusatory.

 

“Well, it’s good to see you again,” he tried for a soft smile.

 

“Good to see you too.”

 

“Dora!” Sirius shrieked.

 

“Uncle Sirius,” she smiled.

 

“ _Uncle Sirius_?” Remus gaped. “Uhh… you two know each other?”

 

“Well of course, Dora’s my niece!”

 

“ _Niece_?”

 

“Yeah, she’s Andy’s daughter!”

 

“Andy?”

 

And that was the story of how Sirius spent the next hour explaining to Remus the story of his disowned cousin, Andromeda Tonks née Black.

 

.

 

Barty’s plan involved three things: amicable conversation, Reg hooking up with someone, Rabastan getting extremely jealous. Simple, right?

 

Except that he really didn’t know all that much about Rabastan, and Evan was off flirting with some chick, so it’s not exactly like he go and ask him. Gods above his cousin was a whore.

 

Severus was no help at all either. In fact, the minute Barty had announced his intentions for the two, Severus had spent the rest of the night glaring heatedly at Rabastan before Barty eventually got sick of it and threw a pretty, goth-looking girl his way.

 

He? He was _dedicated_ , so far he’d batted away three girls who’d asked him to dance with the sole purpose of hooking his friend up. And then what had happened? A pretty girl had seen Regulus and Rabastan ‘just chatting’ and asked Rabastan to dance with her~ and the fucker had said _‘yes_ ’! Holy cow!

 

And that wasn’t even the worst part! Sirius Bloody Black was there! Barty had a nasty idea. The moment that Rabastan’s dance was over, he walked up to the pair and smirked. “So I hear that _apparently_ there’s a brothel under here.”

 

“Dude, you can here the moans sometimes,” Regulus rolled his eyes. “There’s no ‘apparently,’ it exists.”

 

“I kind of want to see it.”

 

Barty noted the horrified expressions of Regulus and Rabastan with glee. “Come on, who here’s ever been to a brothel?” he questioned.

 

Both boys glanced at each other and shrugged.

 

“Besides, it’s not like any of us are actually going in there and hiring someone, right? We’re just checking if all the rumors are true.”

 

“OK,” Regulus hesitated, “I’ll come with you.”

 

“Rabastan?”

 

“You’re both underage, it would be irresponsible to let you go down there… unsupervised.”

 

“ _Yes_!”

 

.

 

Sirius frowned as he watched the mini-procession that was his brother, a boy he was pretty sure was Bella’s hubby’s brother, and~ _eurgh!_ ~ **_Crouch_** , walk towards the door that led to the basement.

 

Before Remus could stop him, he was following the trio. As they descended the stairwell, he let out a rather loud, obtrusive cough. “Well, well… what do we have here?” Sirius glared.

 

He heard his little brother’s tell-tale gasp of ‘oh shit!’ as the three spun around. Sirius _hated_ how smug Crouch looked.

 

“Ah… big brother’s here, I see,” a voice from behind him drawled.

 

Sirius spun around to face Severus Snape and a boy whom Sirius vaguely remembered from somewhere, who was the one that had spoken.

 

“Who are you?” he growled. “And what are you doing here?”

 

“My name’s Evan Rosier, and I’m here because I saw my dear cousin walk this way. Hello there, Barty,” the man’s demeanor was making Sirius more angry by the second.

 

He felt a presence beside him, and two more people came into view. The presence was, of course, Marlene, and the two other figures were Moony and Dora (whom he referred to think of as ‘Tonks’ given the last time he'd seen her she was only eight).

 

“Sirius, mate, whatever you’re going to do… just calm down, and think about it,” Remus soothed.

 

Sirius let out a growl, lowering his arm, which he’d just noticed that he’d raised. He straightened himself out before turning back and facing Regulus. “We’re leaving, now.”

 

“No.”

 

Sirius did a double-take. “ _No_?” he hissed. “Regulus, come here this instant!”

 

“No!” Regulus glared back up at his brother. “Sirius- you fucking _gave me **permission**_ to come out here tonight. I _told_ you where I was going to be! You said you were _fine_ with it, and now you’re _stalking me_!”

 

“I was checking on you to make sure that you were safe, as I thought that my _underage brother_ might fuck up when out with his ‘friends’~ clearly I made the right-fucking decision. Going down there,” he snorted. “News flash, Reg, people don’t always leave that basement. Now come along, quietly, before things get worse.”

 

Regulus glared heavily at Sirius for a moment, seeming to have finally noticed the crowd gathering around his older brother at the top of the stairs, wondering what was going on. Finally, he gave a resigned sigh and walked up the stairs. He knew that he had to go home, but he didn’t have to like it, and he didn’t have to leave with Sirius.

 

The moment he was out of the club he dipped into an alleyway and transformed. Yeah… he doubted that he’d be returning home for at least another hour or two.

 

.

 

“Told you,” Evan smirked at his best-friend.

 

“Yeah, I guess. Still, it wasn’t cool of his brother to follow him to the club.”

 

“Their relationship is kind of fucked up,” Evan shrugged.

 

‘Then again… if Regulus is staying with Sirius, and Regulus is underage, I can kind of understand why he’s uncomfortable with him going out,’ Rabastan thought to himself, frowning.

 

“So, are you going to induct Barty tonight?”

 

“Yeah,” Evan smirked. “I think he’s proved himself worthy.”


	14. Chapter 14

Sirius, being a superhero, no longer needed his friends’ help to find his reckless idiot of a brother. He suited up and ran across the rooftops of London looking for him, contemplating contacting James for help. He had decided against it, however, concluding that wherever and whenever he found Regulus they would have to have a talk, face to face.

 

Still, he had no luck finding him.

 

“Chat Noir,” he frowned, looking at the rooftop across from him. “What are you doing here?”

 

The startled, sitting cat-superhero turned back to face him. “Uhhh… Padfoot~ this is, uh, this is unexpected.”

 

“You look sad, is everything okay?”

 

“Nothing, just a bit of family drama.”

 

Sirius snorted. “I can relate. Anything you want to talk about?”

 

“No. I find it best that we don’t get over-involved in one-another’s lives, it lessens the risk of us finding out one another’s secret identities.”

 

“Always so proper,” Sirius grinned. “You remind me of my brother.”

 

“Why are you out? Is there an attack that I’m unaware of?”

 

“No, nothing. I’m just out here looking for my brother.”

 

“The one that I remind you of?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Funny, I’m out here kind of avoiding mine.”

 

“Haha, I guess that you have a difficult relationship with your brother as well then, huh?”

 

“Yeah…” Chat Noir paused. “I guess that that’s just the way with brothers, can’t live with them, can’t live without them.”

 

“Who’s older?”

 

“He is.”

 

“Funny, I’m the older one too. Anything that you want to share? I could try give it to you from his perspective.”

 

“I’m not too sure I want to understand his perspective, he~ he let me down… a lot… followed me out on a night out with friends, totally embarrassed me~ and it’s not the first time he’s done this, by the way, I just…” Chat sighed. “I just wish that he’d stop seeing me as some little kid and understand that I’m capable of taking care of myself.”

 

“Of course you are!” Sirius soothed. “I’m sure he just feels protective over you, like you’re his responsibility, older brothers can be like that… you need to understand that in most human relationships, the first impression is the most important, and any older brother’s first impression of their younger sibling is ‘oh, look at this little, helpless creature,’ and nothing will ever change that, because regardless of how much time passes the older brother will always be the older brother…”

 

“And the younger brother will always be the younger brother,” Chat Noir finished bitterly. “I get that~ but I still _hate_ _it_! He’s not like this with _anybody else_!”

 

“Maybe he’s just scared? A lot of older brothers~ well, _siblings_ , are… it comes with age, making mistakes and fearing that your siblings will make the same ones.”

 

“I doubt it. He’s Mr. Mc Perfect-boy, S~he’s never been anything less than perfect, there’s no mistakes to shield me from.”

 

“What if there were and you just don’t know them? Nobody’s perfect, Chat.”

 

“Maybe. Enough about me, tell me about your brother.”

 

“I thought that you didn’t want this to get personal.”

 

“More than it already has? Come on, I shared my woes, now it’s your turn.”

 

“OK~ he's an irresponsible wreck. Not only that, but the company he keeps is rather dodgy. One of his friends _makes_ drugs, _all_ of them do them! He’s a good kid, at heart, but he’s also a soft idiot and I just know that if I don’t step in he’s going to go down the wrong path! So I kind of may have overstepped some boundaries tonight, and we got into a bit of a fight and he stormed off… I’m really just out here trying to make sure that he’s safe~ the idiot wasn’t wearing a jacket! Gods’ above, _and_ he wants me to treat him like an adult? Ha! No way, Jose!”

 

“Maybe his friends aren’t all bad? Maybe he _can_ handle himself and you're just not giving him enough breathing space?”

 

“Too much breathing space, more like,” Sirius snorted. “The problem is that I can never trust what he’s saying, because even if he intends for something to go a certain way, there’s no guarantee of it~ _especially_ given his friends, and that’s tough because while we’re out here, I’m technically his legal guardian.”

 

“He underage?”

 

“Yeah. That’s the funny thing about teenagers, they always think that they're older than they actually are, and when they _act_ older than they really are, it tends to have terrible side affects.”

 

“Maybe try reasoning with him?”

 

“Yeah?” Sirius paused. “And maybe you ought to do the same with your brother.”

 

Chat Noir stood up. “Thank you, Padfoot. I hope that you have good luck with your brother.”

 

“And I you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler alert: All of this advice goes down the drain the next time that they meet in civilian form.
> 
> (Because OF COURSE the only way that the Black brothers can communicate properly is when they don't know that they're talking to the other one)


	15. Chapter 15

“Barty!” Evan grinned, pulling his cousin aside the moment that they stepped foot into his apartment. “I think that it’s time that you were inducted into the family business.”

 

“Family business?” Barty frowned. “Uhh… our law practice? Um, I kind of wanted to be an actuarial scientist.”

 

“No! Not that one,” Evan grinned. “Rab! Come on in!”

 

Barty’s eyes widened as in walked Stick.

 

“Shit! _Shit_! This is bad, Evan, _very bad_! Quick~ we’ve got to get out of here, we’ve got to~”

 

“Barty, relax,” Sitck smiled. “It’s me. Rabastan.”

 

“ _What_?” Barty gaped.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Are-are you in some kind of disguise? Are you cosplaying as Stick or something?”

 

“’fraid not. I’m Stick, I’ve always been Stick. Your cousin has a miraculous too. Show him, Evan.”

 

“Gladly,” the blonde smirked. “Duusu, _wings out_!”

 

Barty watched in a mix of shock, horror and morbid fascination as within a flash of golden and blue light, his cousin transformed into Maître Bleu.

 

“Evan, you’re~ and-and _he’s_ ~ oh my gods, I’ve got to sit down!” Barty practically collapsed into the closest chair. “You-you guys are _supervillains_!”

 

“Hmmm, that’s one way to put it,” Evan smirked. “Truth be told, we’re just looking for the Cat and Ladybug Miraculouses to give to our boss, Voldemort, in the hope of creating a better world~ a world wherein the rich stay rich and the poor, essentially, become our slaves.”

 

“ _What_!?” Barty panicked.

 

“Join us! Join us and you’ll be powerful too! Join us and when we _do_ create our world, you’ll be able to reap the benefits.”

 

“But-but that’s _wrong_!” Barty protested, despite feeling oddly tempted to join.

 

“Really, Barty? And whom, may I ask, is qualified to dictate what is right and wrong? Certainly nobody on this earth. Join us… we, as Voldemort’s closest followers, are part of the select few that will become immortal. _Join us_ , Barty. Be everything your father wouldn’t want you to be.” Yes, yes, that sounded appealing.

 

“And if I do join?” Barty asked. “What of my friends? What of Regulus? Would he join?”

 

Barty didn’t miss the way that Evan scowled at that. “Well, unfortunately your friend lacks a few key qualities to joining our forces, however if you are asking if he’d benefit from what we are to do, the answer is yes. The Blacks are one of the wealthiest families in all of Britain, they would certainly reap the benefits of our mission. In regards to Severus, whilst he may not be highly influential or exuberantly rich, we would be able to shield those close to us from any side effects that may arise due to our goal. Come on, Barty, this is your chance to be a part of the winning side, to shield everybody whom you love…”

 

“OK,” Barty sighed after a moment. “OK, I’m in.”

 

“Good. Rab,” Evan held out his hand.

 

Rabastan handed Evan a white box with a symbol on it. Evan then handed the box to Barty.

 

“Here you go,” he smiled. “Your miraculous.”

 

Barty opened it, and out popped a small, white body with an oversized head and white wings on its sides. It had a golden beak-like mouth and blue eyes.

 

“Hello, Barty!” it greeted. “I’m Dovve, your kwami!”

 

“Hello, Dovve,” he breathed.

 

“I’m here to help you create a better world. To activate me, simply shout: Dovve~ wings on!”

 

“Dovve~ wings on!” Barty shouted. In a flash of brilliance, he was transformed. Suddenly, in the middle of his living room stood a man in a brown body suit with a bow and quiver and big, white wings on his sides. It was oddly reminiscent of the time that Thomas’d transformed into Bedbug, with one distinct difference (other than his bodysuit to Thomas’s loincloth). His mask was _way_ cooler! It went from his browline to just over his nose, giving the impression that he had sort of a beak (the area of which was painted a golden orange). It was white, with silver accents and feathers sticking out at either end. His eyes were a bright blue compared to their usual pale grey-blue.

 

“This is so cool!” Barty squealed.

 

“Yeah…” Maître Bleu-Evan frowned. “Try not to do that. From now on you serve Lord Voldemort, our leader. We have been tasked to train you.”

 

“Let’s get started!” Barty grinned confidently.

 

.

 

“Where did you go?” Sirius hissed, the moment that Regulus walked through the front door.

 

“Out. I’m sorry, does it bother you that you couldn’t _stalk me_ this time?” he growled in response.

 

“Oh wow, very mature. And pray do tell, had I not followed you what would have happened? Huh? You would’ve gone into a _brothel_ ~”

 

“I’d’ve been _fine_ ~”

 

“Merlin, Regulus, _you’re only **seventeen**_!” Sirius exploded. “ _Anything could have fucking happened when you were down there! You could have been drugged along with your friends, stolen, **sold** and I’d’ve never known better! You want me to **trust** you, yet you constantly do reckless things_ ~”

 

“ _I thought that we’d agreed on full disclosure!_ ” Regulus screamed back, tears in his eyes. “ _I thought that we’d finally agreed that we could trust each other~ that you were finally going to stop being so **damned overbearing** , but I should’ve **known better**! I should’ve known **not to trust** Sirius Bloody Black!”_

 

And with that, Regulus stormed off to his bedroom.

 

“Oh~ _real mature_ , Reg, _REAL MATURE_!” slam. “How _bloody fucking mature of you_ , **_you’re right_** _, I **should** treat you like an adult! Slamming doors like that, huh, how **very fucking mature**_!”

 

.

 

“You can’t tell anyone,” Evan said, once they were back in civilian form.

 

“But what about you and Rabastan?”

 

“There’s a group of us, as I’m sure that you know. Death Eaters. We are the only ones who know each others’ identities. It’s you (now), me, Rab, Rodolphus~ his brother~, Bella, Lucius and Narcissa.”

 

“Woah! And you _all_ know?”

 

“Of course. That’s why I’ve come here… to ask you to come with us.”

 

“What?”

 

“Come, join us in Cambridge.”

 

“Do I have to?”

 

“No. No you don’t, but it would greatly benefit you, I believe, to have a support group to fall back on right beside you.”

 

“But Chat Noir and Ladybug both live somewhere here, isn’t it more useful to have people around _this_ area?”

 

“He’s got a point,” Rabastan hummed.

 

“I suppose. Anyways, I’d advise that we all get some rest,” Evan turned and began walking towards his bedroom.

 

.

 

**LB: So, Padfoot told me that _apparently_ you have some older brother problems.**

**CN: Shit! That little fucker was supposed to keep that a _secret_!**

**LB: Well he didn’t so tough.**

**LB: Besides, I thought that you knew that we all secretly gossiped about you behind your back.**

**CN: You do not.**

**CN: If you had been, then I would know it by now.**

**CN: Heaven knows you can’t keep a secret ;)**

**LB: Shame it never worked out between us.**

**CN: I think it’s for the best that we were never an item.**

**CN: Nothing can top a friendship like ours.**

**LB: Always so sweet.**

**LB: Maybe if you were like that with your brother you two wouldn’t be fighting ;P**

**CN: Lol, even if we weren’t fighting about this, we’d be fighting about something.**

**CN: That’s just how it’s always been with us.**

**CN: Pretty depressing, really.**

**LB: Isn’t it always with you, Mr. Doom and Gloom?**

**CN: Hey! I’m cheery like 99% of the time.**

**LB: And the rest?**

**CN: I’m either with you or my brother the rest of the time.**

**LB: Lol!**

**LB: Wow, C Noir, you crack me up.**

**CN: I’m sensing sarcasm in your text.**

**LB: You’re observant too, quite the catch, really.**

**CN: Ladybug, please, stop flirting.**

**CN: You’re not my typs ;)**

**LB: And whom might your type be?**

**CN: Handsome and smart.**

**LB: O.o**

**LB: You’re _so_ going to pay for that the next time we meet.**

**CN: If you want, it could be tonight.**

**LB: Where?**

**CN: Our usual spot, on top of that old building outside of Hyde Park.**

**LB: It’s a date.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anybody was confused by the flirting, I swear that it's all in jest. Neither Regulus nor Remus have any sort of interest in forming a romantic relationship with their counterpart's alternate persona. They've got more of a bromance which I find adorable!


	16. Chapter 16

Ladybug smirked as he watched Chat Noir hop up onto the roof.

 

“So, are you ready to settle this?” the younger superhero smirked.

 

“Bring it on, you little Pussy.”

 

“Oh, you’re _so_ going to pay for that!” Chat Noir grinned.

 

Chat Noir pounced at him, and Ladybug dodged, laughing all the while.

 

.

 

**PF: Pssst! Prongs.**

**PG: Lol, Sirius, you don’t have to use our communicators to text me!**

**PG: Just use your phone.**

**PF: OMFG JAMES!**

**PF: Shit!**

**PF: Delete that!**

**PF: What if somebody hacks these and sees our real names!?**

**PG: Shit, I didn’t think of that.**

**PG: Hey!! You used my name too!**

**PF: :(**

**PF: We’re so fucked.**

**PG: Tell me about it :(**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick mini-chapter before everything goes to shit.


End file.
